Shark alert clears beach

Three brothers couldn't believe their eyes when confronted with a mako shark at Papamoa Beach on Saturday.
Ryan Eyers, 19, sent the Bay of Plenty Times photos of what appears to be a mako swimming in the shallows at the east end of Papamoa Beach.
Swimmers fled when the 2.5m shark headed close for shore. Swimmers were warned to get out and the shark had the water to itself for more than an hour before it headed out to sea.
Mr Eyers is a university student in Wellington. He said it was the last thing he expected of his trip to the beach with brothers Glenn, 16, and Jonathan, 13, who are on holiday from Hamilton, along with their parents.
The incident occurred at the beach off Taylor Rd.
Mr Eyers said he and his brothers were told to get out of the water by several beachgoers who were skinning and filleting fish at the water's edge.
By the time the shark got close to shore, everyone was out of the water and about 30 people stood on the beach and watched the shark swim in the shallows.
Head regional guard at Papamoa Kurt Golding, was surprised to be told about the sighting.
Mr Golding, head guard at Papamoa for four years, said he had never seen a shark while patrolling Papamoa Beach.
He was not working at the weekend.
``We've had a couple of shark sitings, but they've never been confirmed.'
Meanwhile, three overseas visitors had to be rescued from the surf at Mount Maunganui yesterday.
Two 8-year-old Chinese boys fell off an inflatable whale toy and drifted off in to a small rip at Main Beach, but were soon rescued by lifeguards.
A 14-year-old Canadian was caught in a rip on his boogie board off Tay St and a lifeguard brought him back to shore. Lifeguards at the Mount also assisted a woman who had an asthma attack while walking around the base of Mauao, and were involved in 35 preventative actions.
Between 2000 and 3000 sunseekers took to Mount Maunganui Main Beach on Saturday and Sunday, and thousands more along to Tay St.
More than 700 beachgoers set up camp at Omanu where the Omanu Classic and Ian Porteous Memorial Ironman were taking place, and there were between 500 and 600 people at Papamoa.
Water temperatures sat at a comfortable 19C and the surf a gentle metre.
The surf club patrol captains reported that people were generally being beach-wise and swimming between the flags. Moving swimmers from rips still made up a main part of their duty. Waihi, Omanu and Papamoa had no reported rescues yesterday.
All clubs reported having to treat swimmers for jellyfish stings.