The Great New Zealand Road Trip: The life of Riley Elliott – NZ’s Shark Man on new adventures in the ocean, tracking the great whites

New Zealand’s ‘Shark Man’ is on the move – he’s left Auckland to set up a new permanent home in Coromandel, ahead of critical monitoring and research into the habits of great white sharks in NZ waters, and further afield.

Shark scientist Riley Elliott surveys the Pacific Ocean from his newly built home in Tairua on the Coromandel. Out there somewhere are his increasingly elusive targets.

“The Coromandel, it’s where I grew up holidaying and now it’s my lifestyle, my occupation, my passion,” says Elliott, a marine scientist who’s known famously here and around the world as Shark Man, by deed of his almost 15 years’ work producing and fronting documentaries for Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, and a body of research.

“Look at it, it’s a playground, it’s insane, the diving, the surfing, the spear fishing, the tourism ... I can see islands with specific shark populations I target.”

Though the ocean might well be a playground, it poses dangers – some of them perhaps lost in perspective.

Almost 100 people a year drown in New Zealand – a big percentage in the sea – whereas shark attacks are rare and deaths even rarer.

“It’s the ocean, they’re there. The majority of us are in our speedos at Whangamatā and there’s a few bronze whalers around ... there’s nothing to worry about,” says Elliott.

Tragically, an experienced commercial diver working in a great white shark zone died this week after being attacked by a shark in the Chatham Islands.

“This guy was capable, competent, loved the ocean and was seeing great whites many a time,” says Elliott.

“Just like a mountaineer, he’s aware that there are avalanches out there, but he loves his job. You take on those small risks and unfortunately, sometimes the avalanche happens.”

While the movie Jaws is a lot to blame for people’s irrational fear of sharks (yes, really), Elliott senses the narrative has been changing with better education – and he also praises responsible media.

“Society has come a long way since Jaws, and it’s that open-mindedness to learning about our natural world that will ultimately save it.”

Nevertheless, he acknowledges people’s caution.

“It doesn’t mean people aren’t scared and I always say you should be scared of a highly capable and sometimes lethal predator, but it’s the reaction to that fear which should be through respect and a desire to understand it rather than malice and hate.”

Riley Elliott is well known as a shark expert and lover of the ocean and outdoors. He recently built a new home in Tairua in the Coromandel. Photo / Supplied

Elliott, 39, who was raised in Hamilton with Raglan on his doorstep, says it was as a “nature kid” and his own lust for ocean sports that sparked his passion for what lay beneath.

“I surfed all the time and just sitting on your board, there’s only so long you can do that without wondering what’s under you. As a surfer largely comes the fear of the great man in the grey suit – the sharks.

“But for me it was more, how does that seal do that? How does that bird dive under the water and hold its breath?”

As he moved into spearfishing and freediving, “a whole new world” opened up to him.

For more than a decade his world has focused on sharks – learning their behaviours and migratory patterns and communicating that science to the public, in a style not dissimilar to David Attenborough or the late Steve Irwin.

Shark researcher Riley Elliott under the water. Photo / Supplied

So where are New Zealand’s great white sharks right now?

Two years ago, with the support of the public, Elliott was able to tag several great white sharks, including a baby shark in Tauranga Harbour. People could track, on an app, sharks such as Daisy, Mananui and Swaj (Jaws spelt backwards).

Since then, and as expected, the tags have come off the sharks and the animals themselves have fled their usual habitats because of serious weather events such as Cyclone Gabrielle, which flushed sediment into coastal areas. As Elliott says, would you stay put if your home suddenly had toilet water flushed through it?

This summer will be a critical time to discover if the sharks have started returning.

Now that he’s based permanently in Tairua, having moved there this month from Auckland, Elliott has his tags ready again – he’s encouraging boaties and anyone who encounters a great white shark to safely film it, if possible, and send him details of the location.

When he launched his Great White App, it revealed Daisy, a 2.75m great white, was swimming between the flags at Waihī.

“Those sharks that we tag, they’re small sharks, they eat stingrays, crabs, they don’t bother people. There wasn’t panic, there wasn’t any bites or attacks.”

The app helps give people information about the ocean environment.

“When we created the shark app I thought some surfers would be hesitant to use it, but it was actually adopted incredibly well. I don’t think I got one negative comment and it’s because people appreciate the option to have information.”

Road trip leg 4.

He equates it to people who go skiing with their kids, with the option of various slopes and coloured zones.

“I think people have a lust for understanding their environment and that’s safer. You’re not being naive – you shouldn’t walk into the savannahs with a blindfold on to try and play tennis, you know. If a lion smacked you, who’s to blame?”

Elliott’s next big project will focus on the far south of New Zealand.

In March and April, he will venture to Stewart Island to tag as many great white sharks as possible in that famous breeding area – one of only five hotspots in the world. The other four sites are all dwindling.

“No research has been done down there for 15 years. Great white populations are disappearing, redistributing, dwindling, and yet ours is incredibly strong. With no monitoring, though, it’s almost an ignorant position.”

The area will be a mix of “mums and dads” who venture on huge migrations to Polynesia and younger sharks “who go down there and learn”.

“So that gives you a platform, an aggregation site. It’s like going to the bar – everyone is in one place.”

Before that, Elliott is settling into his new home alongside wife Amber and their 1-year-old daughter, Sailor. He’s looking forward to a summer when he can return to the ocean.

He’s been flat tack finishing the new house and preparing for two more Discovery documentaries that have been green-lit to coincide with his Stewart Island work.

He’ll also be featuring once again on Discovery Channel’s Shark Week in December with a couple of shows he finished this year.

Riley Elliott with his wife Amber Jones, 1-year-old daughter Sailor and their dog Kona at their new home in Tairua in the Coromandel. Photo / Mike Scott

At 39, Elliott still holds a strong sense of purpose for his work.

He wants to inspire people to understand the importance of sharks in the ecosystem and the food chain, and to know that their numbers are dwindling to about 30% of what they once were.

“Now having a kid, a 1-year-old girl, I want her to see crayfish when she’s older. I want her to see scallops, sharks, all those things that are literally disappearing every single year.”

He still pinches himself about his work.

“Everyone starts as a nature kid generally, and I’ve been very lucky that somehow through hard work, determination, you know, that passion, that purpose has resulted in a job.”

As he surveys the ocean again, he adds: “It’s kind of weird to say that because I don’t work for anyone other than that big blue thing out there.”

Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including managing editor, NZ Herald editor and Herald on Sunday editor.