Jaws loses lunch
The first thing I say is to not try this at home – or anywhere. You gotta know what you’re doing. Mako can bite their own tails so it could have bitten my wrist or my body if I wasn’t careful.’ JOE MOMOIVALU
boat, so I just grabbed it by the tail.’’
Having spent most of his youth in the tropical waters of Fiji, swimming with manta rays and sharks, Momoivalu felt right at home around the predator.
‘‘While it was just dangling body, the 33-year-old proceeded to give it a good telling-off in ‘‘fluent mako’’.
‘‘I was like ‘we wanna keep some fish and not have to throw them away so can you please go away now?’,’’ he said.
After less than a minute, he released Junior back into the water.
Tasting freedom, the mako ‘‘took off at a rate of knots, never to be seen again.’’
The crew ended the trip with 20 (and a half) snapper, four kahawai and photographic proof of the epic encounter.
Momoivalu said since that day more than a week ago, many people have been requesting a retelling of the urban fishing legend first hand.
‘‘The first thing I say is to not try this at home – or anywhere.
‘‘You gotta know what you’re doing.
‘‘Mako can bite their own tails so it could have bitten my wrist or my body if I wasn’t careful.’’
Momoivalu is one of the operators at the Tamaki Marine Park, and has been fishing the Hauraki Gulf for about 10 years.
‘‘We always had that problem with sharks feeding on our catch.’’
He said he want to teach his son, who was also on board, a valuable lesson about makos.
‘‘If they take your whole fish including your hook – it’s really hard to release it safely while still alive so I wanted to scare it off.’’
Department of Conservation marine scientist and shark expert Clinton Duffy said young makos were notoriously cheeky at ‘‘taxing the catch’’ and very common in the Gulf at this time of year.
As they become better predators, they move on to a diet of swordfish, marlin, squid and octopus.