A recent sighting of a great white shark in a Waikato harbour has prompted a warning to both swimmers and fishers this summer.
Footage provided to 1News showed a shark, confirmed to be a great white, circling a fishing boat in the Kawhia Harbour earlier this week.
“He’s pretty f***ing curious, isn’t he?” said one of the fishers.
The Department of Conservation (DOC) alerted swimmers to look out for great white sharks after sightings in the Kawhia Harbour in Waikato recently.
“If you do see a great white shark while swimming you should quickly and calmly get out of the water.
“They often come into harbours in search of food and are attracted to recreational fishing vessels using berley.”
Shark expert Riley Elliott said great white sharks were common in New Zealand’s waters.
“Most of the North Island harbours are understood to be nursery grounds for sharks, including the great white.”
He said sharks are “incredibly evolved” to smell food and that interactions with humans often occur in relation to that.
“It’s really important that when you partake in fishing, or you’re disposing of fish frames, you shouldn’t do that where people swim, because you’re just inviting the dog under the dinner table and feeding it.”
Sharks inhabit these areas naturally and it was not unusual to see them, Elliott said.
“There’s nothing shocking about seeing a shark in the ocean, it is where they live. We tend to be surprised by that. But the novelty of this is the fact that there’s five million of us that have gone into their home, so our recreation enables more observations, more interactions.”
The shark was spotted off Kawhia Harbour on the Waikato coast. (Source: 1News)
People were still out enjoying the day down at the Kawhia waterfront when 1News visited today, although some were apprehensive about getting into the water.
Hunter Te Huia-Crean, who was on holiday from Te Awamutu, said he saw the shark while swimming yesterday.
“You could see these big as shadows, just swimming across, they were chasing a stingray. Everyone got out of the water and they were trying to pay each other 50c to jump back in.”
His mum Kay told 1News the kids weren’t scared of the shark at all.
“Not like me, I’m not going in that water.”
Ōtorohanga District Council’s Christopher ‘Kit’ Jeffries said it was “pretty unusual” and that he had never heard of a great white coming into the harbour.
“We’ve had orcas here previously who liked to come and chase the stingys around and we’ve had the odd bronze whaler, but never a great white.”
The councillor said it had caused a bit of concern for locals.
“I know the kids are still doing their manus off the wharf over here, but I don’t know, they’re a bit gamer than I am.”
