“I was pretty shocked, got my nerves going,” he said.
“I had a little bit of adrenaline but it was a pretty cool sighting.”
He said it’s the first time he’s seen a shark up close, and is not sure which type it is or exactly how big.
“I don’t know, 1m to 1.5m,” he said.
“It looked pretty big from where I was.”
The shark splashed around for a short time and then disappeared, Karaz said.
He and the five or so mates he had gone to Okahu Bay wharf to fish with continued angling afterwards and enjoying the sunny day, he said.
The sighting did not affect swimmers at nearby Okahu Bay Beach or Mission Bay Beach, he said.
But it was a reminder for next time he goes swimming that Auckland’s waters are alive with sea life, Karaz said.
One of the most recent shark scares in New Zealand took place on November 3 when a diver suffered minor injuries after a run-in with a great white shark near Cape Palliser at the southern tip of the North Island.
Clinton Duffy from the Department of Conservation said Great white sharks were fairly common in New Zealand waters from the Kermadec Islands in the north to the Subantarctic Islands, he said.
But while alarming, tragic encounters were rare and drownings were the leading cause of death in water in 2021.
It comes after a coroner last year recommended more research and monitoring of great white sharks after the death of a woman in the Bay of Plenty.
Kaelah Marlow, 19, died after being bitten by a great white at the southern Bowentown end of Waihī Beach on January 6, 2021.
The coroner’s report said attacks by great whites were rare but almost always fatal.
Marlow had been swimming between the flags on a lifeguard patrolled beach with a group of friends when she was attacked by a 2.8m great white shark.
The incident happened shortly after her friends had returned to shore as they felt the current had become too strong, the report said.
The last fatal shark attack in New Zealand waters before that was in Auckland in 2013 at Muriwai Beach.
