Amateur fisherman gets up close with sharks

A Tauranga amateur fisherman has a new respect for sharks after building a cage to get close-up views of the feared predators of the deep.
Unlike the frenzied attacks by great whites frequently captured on TV shows, Adam El-Agez's ingenuity to build his own window into the world of sharks has revealed them to be gentle and inquisitive creatures.
"I'm really interested in the ocean and watching animals in their natural environment."
His fascination with sharks took off when he entered a shark cage on a visit to Gisborne. After an initial feeling of fright at the sight of a shark closing in, Mr El-Agez quickly realised he had nothing to fear.
"Sharks aren't stupid. They are really quiet - swim slowly and come in close to get a really good look."
There is hardly a single time that Mr El-Agez and his friends have not succeeded in viewing sharks - but never a great white.
With the help of a little bit of berley thrown over the side of his boat, an Extreme 650 Game King, they regularly attract mako and blue sharks.
It was then a simple matter of lowering the cage over the side of the boat, with the top sticking out of the water so the shark has no way in.
And it's not as if the sharks swim in and take off.
"They are gentle and stick around - they want to investigate. They want to see what we are about, as much as we want to what they are about."
Mr El-Agez said it was a purely amateur interest. When a Bay of Plenty Times news team spotted him hauling the cage off his boat, he joked there were big crayfish in the Bay.
Instead of "going fishing", he now talks about "going sharking". And he does not have to go far out to be in waters frequented by sharks - usually about four miles off Tauranga.
The first time he went out to test his cage, it was a case of spotting a couple of sharks and throwing out the berley. Since then they have returned to the same area.
"They are always there."
He is under no illusions about what might happen if he encountered the "apex predator", the great white shark.
"They cane anything, but the sharks we see aren't like that."
Mr El-Agez and his friends often use a snorkel and mask to view sharks in the cage.