14-year-old Jim Macken landed a 1.5m Bronze Whaler while eeling with a bow and arrow in a fresh water stream. Photo / Supplied
14-year-old Jim Macken landed a 1.5m Bronze Whaler while eeling with a bow and arrow in a fresh water stream. Photo / Supplied
A teenage spear fisher caught a 1.5 metre shark 15km from the ocean in a freshwater stream.
On Sunday while out eeling in the Irongate Stream not far from his Riverslea Rd house, 14-year old Jimmy Macken came across an "emaciated and drowsy" bronze whaler.
The teenager had setout to go fishing with his bow and arrow, but he never expected to come across the salt water predator in the murky stream.
"The shark was barely moving, and its tummy was deflated, it didn't look like it had eaten in days," Jimmy said.
"It was a shark, I wasn't going to jump in there with it," the teen said when asked if he thought of trying to save the rare specimen.
His father said the shark seemed very disorientated and lost.
Department of Conservation marine technical advisor Clinton Duffy confirmed the shark was a bronze whaler.
A DoC spokesperson said whalers regularly fed on schooling kahawai. "Which may explain the presence of this particular bronze whaler at Karamu Stream."
Kahawai are commonly found at Hawke's Bay river mouths and also lower reaches of rivers.
A bronze whaler was caught about 15km away from the ocean in the Irongate Stream. Photo / Supplied
Jimmy regularly goes fishing for game with his father, they have both never seen a shark in a river let alone that far upstream.
Bronze whalers are not generally aggressive and it is possible to safely swim and dive with them as they do not naturally prey on anything as large as humans.
But the bronze whaler isn't harmless - it preys on bony, small sharks and rays and can become very aggressive when stimulated by struggling fish or fish blood, as often happens with spear fishers.
In such cases the shark is competing with the diver for the fish, rather than attempting to eat them.
The bronze whaler is "not a threatened or a protected species, and is commonly encountered in the lower reaches of large rivers," Duffy said.
"Like any other species sharks are an important part of the marine ecosystem and should be released unharmed if they are an unintended catch."
Sharks protected under wildlife laws in New Zealand are:
Great white (pointer) shark Whale shark Basking shark Small tooth sand tiger shark (deepwater nurse shark) Oceanic white tip shark Oceanic manta rays and spine tailed devil rays are also protected.
