Auckland’s Te Arai Beach dramatically empties after shark sighted close to the shore

A parent plucked their young children from the water and sprinted to safety after a large shark was spotted just metres from the shore at a popular Northern Auckland surf beach.

Rosh Kumararathna and his family were spending the day at Te Arai Beach on Saturday when he spotted something in the sea not too far from his daughter.

“I was carrying my daughter and put her down. When I put her down, I noticed something moving. It almost looked like a stingray,” he told the Herald.

“Then the whole shape came into view and I saw the dorsal fin and the two fins sticking out of the water.”

Kumararathna grabbed his daughter from the knee-deep water and ran on to Te Arai Beach’s shore.

“I just started shouting ‘Shark!’ and everyone started joining in. The people soon figured out what was going on.

“They rushed to shore and were watching the shark. There were one or two people who didn’t know what was going on, but they slowly swam to the beach.

He estimated there were 20-30 people in the water.

“Everyone was standing there taking pictures, watching the shark in awe.”

The Auckland resident said the shark was still in the water when they left.

“He was still swimming around, looking really curious.”

Kumararathna estimated the 2m-long shark was within arm’s length when he first spotted it.

“It kept getting closer and then heading back out. It was parallel with the beach and then swimming towards us with the waves,” he said.

“It wasn’t darting in, trying to attack or anything. It was really curious.”

A 2m-long shark was spotted off the coast of Te Arai Beach in North Auckland. Photo / Rosh Kumararathna

Kumararathna told the Herald the shark had a “bronze hue”.

“I don’t know if it was the sun setting that made it that colour, but it was light to dark grey with a tinge of bronze.”

In September, shark expert Dr Riley Elliott told the Herald sharks were coming into shallow waters because it was their environment.

“It’s their backyard and they are trying to go about their business and keep the cycle of life going,” he said.

“There’s this perception that sharks are invading because there’s warmer waters, but it’s not. It’s purely a seasonal movement from deep ocean water into the coastal shallows for food and for pupping.”

Shallow coastal waters are a nursery ground for fish, and almost all fish species will use them, Elliott said.

“So everything from your snapper to your kingfish to your sharks come in to drop their pups or their eggs.

“And you’ve got, predominantly, bronze whalers, but also baby great whites and other species coming inshore.

“They’re coming inshore to pup, coming inshore to mate, coming inshore to drop eggs – and also coming inshore to feed on all of those things that are coming inshore to do all that.”

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