Exan Zamora with the day's catch. Photo / Ken Zamora.
Exan Zamora saw the shark's fin as his father Ken worked hard to pull in the fishing line through the surf.
The 12-year-old was excited as its gleaming bronze form wriggled on the sand, struggling to free itself from the hook.
But then he felt sorry for the sea creature
lying on Pakiri Beach, northeast of Warkworth, on New Year's Day.
He looked at his father, who was still puffing and panting after an hour's effort to retrieve the heavy line from 1000m out to sea.
Their eyes met.
Mr Zamora stared down at the fish.
"We don't eat shark," he said. "We don't know how to fillet shark."
"Let's return him," said Exan.
"I don't know how he was hooked when the bait was so small," said Mr Zamora.
He was conscious of the time the 1.5m shark had been out of the water and did not want it to die but wrenching the hook out was a struggle.
After several minutes, he was able to grab the bleeding shark by the tail and drag it into the surf.
A wave washed over them.
"Then it took off," said Mr Zamora. "Out to sea, not towards me."
Exan took photographs of the rescue and Mr Zamora, originally from the Philippines but now a Manurewa resident, showed the pictures to the Herald.
"I think the shark ate all my bait," he said.
"We took 1000m of line out on our kite-fishing set and it took about an hour to bring in so that was it for the day.
"We went home without fish for dinner."
Department of Conservation marine biologist Clinton Duffy praised the Zamoras for "sensible conservation" practice with a juvenile bronze whaler, which was no threat to swimmers. But he said Mr Zamora had risked getting a nasty bite in return for his kind act by holding the shark by the tail.
"Sharks are capable of biting their own tails and the only safe way to handle them is by grabbing them either side of the front half of the body - just in front of the large paired sidefins just behind the gills."
An adult female bronze whaler can measure up to 3.3m.
Kite-fishing expert Rob Nelson said fishers using that method at Pakiri had also caught small mako and blue shark.
