Couple spot sharks on Auckland’s Big Manly Beach

There was another shark sighting off an Auckland beach, after a couple eating raspberries at a Saturday night picnic were surprised when a shark they described as being up to 2.7m broke the nearby water.

The sighting, at the Swann Reserve end of Big Manly Beach around 7.30pm, is among several in northern New Zealand this summer.

On Wednesday, an Auckland man was left bloodied and slightly injured after a shark bit his arm on Bay of Plenty’s Papamoa Beach, and the Department of Conservation called for caution in nearby Tauranga Harbor this long weekend. after several possible sightings of great white sharks.

Earlier this month, 19-year-old Kaelah Marlow was killed in a suspected shark attack off Waihi Beach.

At tonight’s Big Manly Beach sighting, 19-year-old Riley Martell and his girlfriend Lailah Fonseca were having a picnic when the rusty-colored shark, an unknown species, twice broke the water about fifteen feet from shore. .

“It was really cool, quite an impressive scene,” Martell told the Herald.

“One minute you’re eating your raspberries and then ‘wow, that’s a big shot.’

No one was in the water at the time, although a couple of other swimmers were at the other end of the beach, Martell said.

He’s also a regular beach swimmer, and today’s sighting didn’t put him off.

“I will still swim there.”

In the Papamoa attack, the man said the shark involved was a “baby” that “fortunately did not catch on.”

“By the time I reached the surface, it was gone. I rubbed the water out of my eyes once I surfaced and as I did so I felt like a big rush of water, I guess from his tail, it passed me like a whip “he told Stuff.

In the DOC’s warning, people were told to avoid swimming in the main channels of the Tauranga port or fishing on kayaks and jet skis.

The public had to remember that they were sharing the coastal waters with several different species of sharks, said DOC Marine Technical Advisor Clinton Duffy.

“There are always sharks around our coast and sometimes they can get close to shore.”

Recently, there have been several confirmed and unconfirmed sightings of great white sharks in the port of Tauranga.

“It is not unusual for them to be there, however when we visit the ocean, we have to be a little vigilant and aware of what is going on around us.

“Swim where there are life-saving surf patrols, and don’t swim or dive alone.”