Just read this article in the NZ Herald, allegedly people are seeing sharks in the waters around PN way. Anyone know anything about this?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/st...ectid=10367118
Keith & Debby
Member
Sharks in the water ??
Just read this article in the NZ Herald, allegedly people are seeing sharks in the waters around PN way. Anyone know anything about this?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/st...ectid=10367118
Keith & Debby
Senior Member
There's been one or two sightings of sharks of late around the lower north isalnd.
Diny
Senior Member
One of our friends saw a shark from Plimmerton beach & Pete Lamb - the local fishing charter has reported seeing them off the Paremata coast - swimming in the Hutt River is looking all the more apealing at the mo!!
Member
I have been told by the pest control guys here that there are actually more sharks in NZ waters than there are in Oz waters - but there are so many seals and other plentiful food sources around the NZ coast that they rarely bother nibbling on humans...
There is a shark net at St Clair beach in Dunedin.
Senior Member
Thanks for sharing that with usOriginally Posted by ruthyroo
Senior Member
Really makes you want to put on a nice black wetsuit and go swimming/diving/snorkeling
Member
Don't forget that the UK has always had it's share of Great White sightings - if they can live happily in the cold waters here, which we know thay can, why should they not be able to live around NZ - it's not too far (geographically) from Australia, after all.
Emily
Member
You're kidding, right? Come on... NZ? Sharks?? Well, duh! Prolific marine environment, that means everything from plankton to sharks, SURELY you cannot be surprised we have sharks here?
Yes, we have great whites. Yes, I too have been close to these marvellous beasts in my many fishing trips. Are there plagues of the pesky varmints bothering swimmers on all our beaches? No, sorry.
A White SHark has been seen off the Taranaki coast. Mate, I assure you, they will be DOZENS of whites out there. There will be hundreds all around NZ. Chances of any of you coming within coo-ee of one? Pretty close to nil I would say.
Insurance however... do not go swimming near seal colonies.
Do not pour 200l drums of blood and guts into the water and then go swimming in the slick to look at all the pretty fishies.
Avoid these two actions, and you will never see (or be eaten by) one. Promise. If anyone here does get eaten by a shark here in NZ, I will personally apologise at the funeral of whatever bits of you they manage to recover.
I mean, come ON people! One bloke here just spent 3 days drifting at sea in his wet suit off wellington after being lost from a dve group, and even then he managed to avoid being eaten by the big Whitely. A few paddlers on the beaches I am sure will be fine....
Cheers all,
Stu.
Member
Well said Stu, I do agree with you. Statistically speaking, anyone that gets in a car and drives to work is more likely to die horribly than anyone swimming anywhere round the NZ coast is to get munched by a shark - and we all get in our cars without a moments thought. The net at St Clair was installed as a reaction to a shark attack in 1971 - there hasn't been one since. And the net itself only goes out in summer, and it has a tendency to catch more sharks on the way out rather than the way in... but it makes people feel safer.
Member
Hi all, we've stopped swimming in the sea at New Plymouth (Taranaki) because of the shark (6m) but most of my friends have not. They have grown up with this always in the background and accept that the stats are really in their favour (ie unlkely to get bit). It's all part of being here to throw away any useless ideas and ideals that we have brought from the UK and adopt useful new ones.
I have to say though, when we were surfing before christmas most people were riding back in and spent most of the time facing the beach, there's a lot of people out there at the mowho spend a lot of time scanning the horizon........must be all the brit tourists!
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