This shark was visible on the tuesday 23 february,i seen this shark myself while we where swimming at new brighton beach to the right side of the pier hopefully this wil be my first & last exsperience...however the life guard should had a speaker phone i'm glad i kept looking back to land to notice her waving & yelling i knew it was quite large shark seeing fin's in water..

good point jo6. waimairi is a long way away from south shore

Bless the Chinese for reducing the risk faced by beach-goers - the Chinese consume the fins of sharks thereby reducing shark population !

I always thought that Waimari Beach was North. I may be wrong, but when I lived in South Brighton, the beaches went (from S - N) South Shore, South Brighton, New Brighton, North Beach, then Waimari. Is it sloppy reporting or have the beaches moved?

Sounds like a basket shark to me. They're very popular around Easter.

OMG shark spotted in ocean! No way!

Somebody should do something about that.

I was watching a documentary on C4 a couple of Sundays ago. It was about a Great White shark that totally had it in for people and was munching them up left, right and centre. It was so dangerous that they had to put it down by inserting an oxygen tank into it's mouth then shooting the tank with a gun.

Very informative.

At 7 mtr it could be one of two that are regularly found in NZ waters. Basking sharks can grow up to 9.5mtr approx and Great Whites can grow up to 7mtr. Both varieties are most at home in bottom of north and around south island waters so could be either. More likely to be Basking tho as it is very rare to find a White that has got to that length without being nailed by a foreign fishing vessel in NZ waters!!!!!

At that length it is probably a basking shark.

The hysteria over shark attacks is pretty ridiculous, as was commented on, given the number of car accidents.