KEY POINTS:
The Taranaki Terror - the 6m great white shark which likes to cruise the region's coastline in summer - is back, say locals.
A rash of sightings have been reported from boaties and yachties in recent days.
Department of Conservation programme manager Bryan Williams said he believed the 6m monster was the shark previously dubbed the Taranaki Terror.
The shark first hit the headlines in 2004 when it lunged at a small runabout off Waitara, leaving teeth marks in its hull. Since then, it has a been a regular summer visitor.
"We prefer to call her Mrs White, because a couple of summers ago we identified her as a female," Mr Williams told the Taranaki Daily News.
"Great whites are real creatures of habit, and she comes here every summer to feed on the seals."
New Plymouth kayaker Stephen Casey didn't care whether the big shark was female or male when he encountered it late last week - he just wanted to get out of the water.
"I was heading out of Port Taranaki to go fishing, when it passed under me," he told the paper.
"I turned round and headed straight back to the breakwater. I figured that I needed to be close to land."
Members of the New Plymouth Yacht Club reckon they might have seen it too.
Competitors in the recent national laser championships got the jitters when a very big fin was spotted on the edge of their course off the port.
And now that the Taranaki Terror is back in town, everyone seems united in a single plea leave it alone.
Mr Williams said great white sharks have been fully protected since 2007.
This means it is illegal to target them within 200 nautical miles of New Zealand's shores.
- NZPA
