Shark Expert Warning to Kiwis After the Great White Death and Bowentown Sightings

A marine scientist has sent a message to the Kiwis who hope to enter the waters this Easter holiday period.

After another shark sighting just offshore in the Bowentown area, a prominent shark scientist says he would not go swimming in the area.

Dr. Riley Elliott told Heather Du Plessis-Allan in Newstalk ZB While there have always been rare sightings of great whites, you are increasingly concerned about the behavior displayed in the latest incident.

“I got into sharks because I was afraid of them… I have spent the last two decades studying them and have come out with a healthy respect and understanding of how they behave.

“What we have seen in the Bowentown area this summer is cause for concern.

“Not just because of the number of juvenile white sharks, but I’m starting to see the behaviors in the recent video that was posted, which was like a white shark hunting seals around a seal colony.

“But we are talking about one of the most popular swimming destinations in the country.”

In January, 19-year-old Kaelah Marlow from Hamilton was killed in a shark attack in Bowentown.

It is understood that she was pulled out of the living water after the attack and was administered CPR on the beach by paramedics to no avail.

Since then, there have been multiple sightings and catches of great white sharks in the area.

On Monday, a Waihī fisherman took a closer look at the speed and power of a great white shark.

Josh Lonergan was fishing in a boat off the coast of Bowentown, less than 1 km from Anzac Bay, when he saw the shark chasing a fish he was fishing.

“The last horse mackerel I caught was a shark chasing it. I had a kahawai there, so I stuck my head out in a little line of light and set up the camera.”

Following Lonergan’s images and the rise of great whites in the area, Elliott cautioned that people should exercise extreme caution.

He says that locals should be aware of the sharks’ changing and predatory behavior.

“There have been more than a handful of interactions [with great whites], they have identified 11 people. It’s not just 1. There are at least 11 there and that’s unheard of in the area.

“This is where sharks live and where they belong. It is an absolute privilege to have a great white shark in the habitat and reflects a healthy environment.

“At the same time, people shouldn’t go to the Easter holidays unknowingly, fearfully and without understanding. Until we start investigating this area, that’s where we are sitting right now.

“There has been a real hotspot on that Bowentown canal … At the end of the day, every time you enter the ocean you are entering the domain of the sharks.

“New Zealand has not regularly been a hotspot for great whites. What I would say is go into the water knowing your surroundings … Right now we know there are a lot of great whites, there has been a tragedy, there have been encounters. with which we have gotten our way.

“But the last video has shown the predatory strategy of a great white apprentice.”

“It’s not an area I’d be recreating. If you want to be safer, stay closer to shore, stay in shallower water and swim in waters patrolled by lifeguards. But nothing is bulletproof when it comes to the ocean.”

Elliott said the real point of interest was whether these great whites were there all the time, where they came from, and what the future looked like.

He appealed to the Department of Conservation for permission to launch a project investigating the distribution of the great white shark in the northeast of the country in November last year, but was informed that his application is still being processed.

He stressed that more needs to be done to learn about great whites and educate boaters.

“I have many friends in the area and they are worried, they are afraid. They want answers.

“You say ‘are you willing to take the risk of that environment?’ Where we must take a step forward is to allow people to understand that risk through knowledge through research and investigation.

“We are watching videos and encounters. It is fine if you are on a boat, but we have to remember that there was a death there this summer and that should not be hidden.”