Shark wrestler scolds Jaws Junior
A fisherman teaches a lesson to ‘Junior’ after it taxed his catch on the way up. Nicole Lawton reports.
A stand-off with a bolshie shark has earned Joe Momoivalu massive bragging rights and the title of honorary shark whisperer.
The Auckland-based professional angler was fishing outside Tiritiri Matangi in the Hauraki Gulf with several others when they ran into a problem.
The snapper and kahawai they were pulling in around midday had large chunks of flesh missing.
A young mako shark, affectionately named ‘‘Junior’’, was hanging around, making quick work of the fish the men were reeling in.
When this happened once too often, Momoivalu decided to take matters, and shark, into his own hands. ‘‘It was swimming around the 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 there it must have realised it was out of the water and it turned around and tried to bite my arm.’’
Holding it far away from his 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 feeling 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’’.
As they become better predators, they move on to a diet of swordfish, marlin, squid and octopus.