Police advise people to stay out of the water at Opoutama after great white shark incident

This is the location where a great white shark attacked and killed a stranded pygmy sperm whale at Opoutama Beach at Māhia on Sunday while a local man was trying to refloat it.

The Department of Conservation has warned that volunteers trying to refloat stranded whales face a heightened risk of shark attacks in the wake of Sunday’s shocking incident involving a great white shark at Opoutama at Māhia.

Police have been warning people, including school camp groups, not to swim at that location. It follows an incident at the weekend where a great white shark, estimated at five metres-plus, attacked and killed a beached female pygmy sperm whale as a local man was trying to refloat it.

Māhia police officer Chad Prentice told The Gisborne Herald yesterday the huge shark struck without warning when the whale and its attempted rescuer were in waist-deep water.

“The man trying to help the whale told me it happened so quickly.

“The only thing he saw was the shark’s head and jaws come out of the water as it struck the head of the whale. He said he got quite a shock.

“He was holding on to the whale at the time.”

The whale was killed instantly and the shark returned shortly afterwards to take away its body. By then the man had fled to the safety of the shore.

“It happened in front of the YMCA camp between Blue Bay and the golf course in the middle of the day,” Constable Prentice said.

A Department of Conservation ranger later euthanised the whale calf that had stranded with its mother when it became clear that refloating it was not an option.

Constable Prentice said the amount of whale stranding activity in that area of Māhia recently had heightened the potential for an increased presence of sharks on the hunt for food.

“There are additional sharks out there and this latest incident has reinforced that.

“We have got a lot of school camps in Māhia at the moment and I’ve asked them to stay out of the water on the southern side,” he said.

“I’ve been keeping a regular check on the beach and yesterday there was not a soul in the water at Opoutama.”

The Gisborne Herald spoke to a Mahia resident yesterday about the shark incident and community concerns about it.

“It’s not coming up in every-day conservation,” she said. “It’s mainly the holiday makers who are the ones talking about it but I will be swimming on the Mahanga side of Māhia, not at Opoutama.”

Constable Prentice said that was an accurate general consensus of the feeling in the community.

“So far there have not been any further reported sightings of that big shark, or any other shark,” he said.

Matt Tong, the DoC operations manager for Tairāwhiti, told Hawke’s Bay Today well-meaning volunteers could create a risk to themselves and the animals and should alert DoC first when they came across a stranding.

The stranding in January of a pod of 40 false killer whales had increased the chance of sharks being in the waters around Mahia, he said.

“Several shark species feed on whales and dolphins, including their carcasses. Strandings are likely to lead to increased shark activity in the area, as they are attracted to feed on the remains.”