Shark Sightings Off Auckland Coast

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30960, 17 January 1966, Page 12

Shark Sightings Off Auckland Coast

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, January 16. Many shark sightings in coastal waters around the Auckland province were reported this week-end. A university expert on sharks and several Auckland surf club officials said tonight that the large number of reports was probably the result of increased public awareness of sharks after the shark fatality near New Plymouth the previous week-end.

They said people should not be frightened to swim in the sea as a result of the publicity.

An authority on sharks, Professor J. A. F. Garrick, associate-professor of zoology at Victoria University, said: “I’m quite a keen skin-diver and I’m still perfectly prepared to go on skin-diving. “If I had to give people any advice I would tell them to go on swimming, but perhaps not too far out, beyond the breakers, particularly by themselves.”

The chairman of the Auckland Surf Life-saving Association (Mr H. E. Millar) said his association was worried that “scaremongering” was

frightening people away from the beaches. “These sharks have been here always. They have been caught and reported off Rangitoto for many years.” Shark warnings were given at Whangamata both on Saturday and today. On Saturday afternoon police had to be called to clear swimmers from the water when 11 sharks blackened the surf only 15 feet from the shore.

The police ordered everyone out after many swimmers ignored an alarm given by the life-savers. Life-savers who later flew over the school in a commercial aircraft estimated that the largest was 16ft long and that the others measured

from 10 to 12ft. Lines were set but none of the school was caught. This afternoon eight sharks were seen off the beach. Fifteen sharks were reported to have been seen at Mount Maunganui today and two on Saturday. The first alarm yesterday, at 7.45 a.m., was for two packs of sharks near Omanu, at the southern end of the beach.

SOME DOUBTED However, the captain of the Mount Maunganui Surf Club, Mr R. Mitchell, said: “Everyine is looking for sharks and everyone is seeing them. You can take some of these sightings with a grain of salt.” A helicopter sighted three sharks 200 yards off Ohope Beach about 5 p.m. on Saturday.

Sharks were also seen at Whakatane Heads and at Maketu, where swimmers hurried from the water when ' o sharks were sighted off the Kaituna river mouth. Orewa Surf Club members checked off-shore after a boat on Saturday afternoon reported about 15 sharks a mile off Manly Beach. The club captain, Mr P. J. Bell, said later that ha felt the police warnings to people at Orewa to leave the water were unnecessary. “NO DANGER” “We checked, the water was crystal clear and there was no danger. Sharks are often seen a mile off-shore and I’ve run across them myself quite often.” Swimmers left the water at Wai'hi when a six-foot shark was sighted 300 yards from shore off the patrolled area. An 11-foot shark was caught in a net in less than five feet of water off Kawakawa Bay this morning. Mr A. Perucich, of 17 Hinaki street, Tamaki. found the shark in a set net at 7 a.m. Other reported sightings included:

A school of sharks off the Rangitoto beacon on Saturday afternoon. The police launch Deodar warned Cheltenhain Beach swimmers. Two 12-foot sharks seen from the launch Florence Ken-

nedy in the Hauraki Gulf A 10-foot shark near the Devonport ferry wharf shortly before 7 p.m. today. A school of six seen from the air off Great Barrier Island on Saturday. A school of several sharks near Pakatoa Island on Saturday. A number of reports by coastguard auxiliaries of sightings in the Hauraki Gulf and Firth of Thames.