Shark expert Dr Riley Elliott explains how to stay safe around sharks at holiday hotspots. Video / NZ Herald
Swimmers ran from the water “like their lives depended on it” when a shark was spotted in the shallows at Mount Maunganui beach early this afternoon, broadcaster Brodie Kane has told her followers on Instagram.
The former TV journalist, now a podcast-producer and host, was enjoying a “scorcher” day at the Bay of Plenty beach in Mount Maunganui when the shark was seen.
In a mock TV news-style “live cross” to her 58,000 followers on the social media platform, Kane said the sighting had “made some people run out of the water like their lives depended on it”.
“And really, really causing a drama down here on this absolute scorcher of a day.”
Holding one hand against an imaginary ear piece, former TV journalist Brodie Kane is shown in this screengrab doing a mock live TV cross after spotting a shark in shallow water off Mt Maunganui this afternoon.
In a video a shark can be seen below breaking waves amid a backdrop of squealing children, one repeatedly yelling that the shark is “so big”.
She wasn’t sure if she’d be getting back in the water, even though the shark appeared to be moving on, Kane told her followers.
“He’s heading down towards Omanu and Papamoa now.”
A screengrab from a video posted to Instagram by broadcaster Brodie Kane shows the moment a shark was seen in shallow water off a Mount Maunganui beach today.
However, Surf Life Saving NZ’s eastern region lifesaving manager Chaz Gibbons-Campbell said the shark posed no danger to swimmers.
He’d heard about today’s sighting - and they received reports of sightings every day.
“We see them all the time ... it’s pretty standard.”
There were “lots of bronze whalers out there” at the moment, Gibbons-Campbell said.
”Because they’re in pup season, they come into shore to get some of the oxygenated water with all the swell and that’s why you see them sitting in shallows - they’re actually just resting. They’re not actually interested in us at all.”
Standard procedure for shark sightings was for lifeguards to assess the risk - how big the shark was, the species and where it was going - and to let people know, he said.
”The best thing is just to give them a bit of space - respect their presence and hop out of the water for a little bit and most of the time you’re good to go back in.”
Swimmers should also not swim where people are fishing, and fishers shouldn’t to dump their fish carcasses in the shallows “because that obviously draws in the sharks”, he said.
Cherie Howie is an Auckland-based reporter who joined the Herald in 2011. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years and specialises in general news and features.
