Bathers go swimming with sharks

Warmer waters are attracting more sharks to northern regions, but swimmers are still taking the plunge.

Six sharks were spotted yesterday morning at Omaha Beach, on the east coast of Northland, days after a seven-metre shark nudged a kayaker further up the coast.

Omaha lifeguard Melody Edwards said the sharks, 2-3m long, were in shallow waters at the beach's southern end.


"One swimmer was about 10-15m from the sharks.

"We scared the sharks off in the IRB (inflatable rescue boat) and picked up the swimmer and took him to safety."

Further sharks were sighted at the southern end by the Omaha surf rescue team in checks throughout the day.

Despite warning everyone at the beach, about 100 swimmers continued to swim at the safer northern end.

They were about 500m from the sharks' morning location, Miss Edwards said.

At Mt Maunganui, swimmers were frightened by what they thought were big sharks, but which turned out to be six orcas cruising close to the beach.

People were still swimming at Taupiri Bay, where a man said he encountered a 7m great white shark at the weekend.

Russell Police senior constable Gavin Leonard said locals were sceptical about what the man saw.

Andrew Christie, aquarium curator at Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World, said 7m great whites were rare.

"If it were a great white, it would be an impressive fish. A 5m white shark would weigh in excess of 1500kgs, so you're talking about a massive fish."

He said warmer waters attracted sub-tropical species over summer, including sharks.

"It's been a colder summer so far and sharks have been a pretty rare sight. "But great whites don't mind colder water."

He said further sightings were no cause for alarm. "Shark attacks are pretty minimal. It's more dangerous driving home in holiday traffic."