Big `bronzies' in bay

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SHARKS AT MATIATIA: Bronze whalers feed and breed in the warm waters of the Hauraki Gulf in summer.

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Three sharks have been causing a stir at the entrance to Matiatia Bay.

The bronze whalers which cruise the 10-metre-deep waters have been spotted by boaties and fishing charter owners.

Fat Snapper Fishing Charters owner Mark Brown says they show up in summer when the water temperature rises above 20 degrees Celsius.

"These sharks look like they're two to three metres in length."

Conservation Department shark expert Clinton Duffy says bronze whalers are not known to be aggressive and pose little danger to swimmers.

"But any shark over 1.8 metres in length should be considered dangerous."

Bronze whalers are known to snatch fish off fishermen's lines and attack spear fishermen's catches. The only death in New Zealand waters was in 1976 when a spear fisherman was attacked by a bronze whaler from behind as he was hauling his catch up.

Mr Brown says: "Sometimes we have a really hard time out in the Motuihe Channel with sharks taking snapper as we reel them in."

Free diver Scott Perkins, also known as Ocean Man, has had a "few close encounters with the bronzies". In one incident at the bottom end of the island a bronze whaler tried to take a kingfish off his speargun.

"I gave him a good whack on the nose and scared him off," Mr Perkins says.

Sculptor Suza Lawrence also had a close encounter with a bronze whaler when swimming around her sculpture titled Free Air at Matiatia during last summer's Headland – Sculpture on the Gulf exhibition.

"It didn't swim towards me or seem aggressive. Nevertheless I thought it was probably a good time to get out."

Boatie Dene Priestley has decided to moor his launch elsewhere for summer after noticing the bronze whalers coming close to the shore at Matiatia. "We like to jump off our boat and swim and I also like to clean the boat in the water and I'm not too comfortable with those big sharks around."

- Waiheke Marketplace