Angler, shark share lunch
Scott Brenton hoped to get his hands on a few tarakihi when he went fishing off Wellington’s south coast, but what he ended up grasping was a 2-metre shark.
Mr Brenton and fellow fisherman Andrew Harding encountered the blue shark – once rated by Discovery Channel as one of the 10 deadliest sharks in the world – about 500 metres offshore in Fitzroy Bay on Friday.
But this particular shark was not hunting for humans. It was more interested in its own kind, gobbling up the dogfish sharks the pair were reeling in, Mr Brenton said. It was actually docile enough that Mr Brenton was able to hand feed it.
‘‘You could tell by its movements that it wasn’t an aggressive shark.
‘‘I was feeding it fish but it wasn’t attacking them, it just slowly grabbed hold of them and took them away,’’ he said.
‘‘I would’ve been quite comfortable jumping in the water with it if I’d had my dive gear with me. You could tell it wasn’t in attack mode.’’
Mr Brenton said the shark quite happily let him grab its dorsal fin and stroke him on the head several times as it was trying to eat fish off the back of his boat.
Mr Harding said the shark was quite playful.
‘‘It was more like a dolphin . . . Scott actually put a fish on a piece of string at the back of his boat and it was grabbing it and thrashing around.
‘‘It was great, so exciting to see. They’re just beautiful animals in the water. They’re so graceful and slow and not aggressive at all. They’re fantastic things to watch.
‘‘It was just a bit of a pain because I ended up spending more time watching the shark than I did catching tarakihi.’’
Niwa principal scientist Malcolm Francis, who specialises in sharks, said blue sharks were common but rarely seen in New Zealand waters, as it was rare for them to venture close to shore.
‘‘They’ve been known to attack people but it doesn’t happen very often,’’ Dr Francis said. ‘‘They’re quite inquisitive and fairly persistent, so if there’s food on offer then they will check it out.’’