Resident catches shark at Otaki Beach
A former Porirua man landed a two metre shark with his bare hands as he fought the creature cruising Otaki Beach.
After a weekend that saw families enjoying flat surf and warm weather, Kelly Sale set a net about 400m south of the Marine Pde surf club on February 13.
The next day the shark, likely a bronze whaler, swam into the chest-deep net at about 4am while Mr Sale checked it for fish.
‘‘As I got there, I was just turning up to my first buoy and the net just went ‘boom’.’’
Mr Sale said the shark was about 30m away, straining against the net, pulling it tight and tangling it round his leg.
He had no idea what was at the other end until he saw the shark’s thrashing tail, helping drag him further into the water.
Mr Sale moved to Otaki Beach from Porirua six months but says he’s still ‘‘ hard- out Porirua’’.
He loves nothing better than crossing the road and setting his net, then dragging in his quota of kahawai and mullet, and the occasional crab.
On February 14 he started pulling back against the shark, knowing that if he didn’t fight he could be drowned by his own net.
He was astonished such a large shark could be so close to shore; a spot where he often swims with his daughter.
‘‘I had to get him out of the water, because there’s kids round there.’’
Mr Sale was born in Wellington of Tokelauan parents; his father Mapu Sale was a ‘‘real ocean man’’, a great diver back in the islands.
It was about 5am when a shocked Mr Sale dragged the last of the net close to shore – close enough to reach the shark.
‘‘He’d lost a lot of energy, so I just grabbed him.
‘‘I wrapped him up from the side and carried him up most of the way. ‘‘I didn’t want him ripping my net.’’ The shark was too heavy to lift when it was finally landed so Mr Sale wrapped it in a plastic sheet and towed it home across the road behind his ute.
Mr Sale said he will have a break from netting, and was ‘‘ kind of in shock’’ in the hours after his fight with the shark.
He had no idea what to do with its body – still wrapped in plastic on his back lawn beside the net – but he didn’t want to eat it and holds ‘‘no grudge’’ against it.
‘‘He was a strong fighter. The poor guy, he fought a lot.’’