KEY POINTS:
Hot days are not only drawing crowds of holiday makers to the beach this summer -- sharks are also making an appearance.
Sharks have been spotted in three areas of the North Island this summer.
In North Taranaki Waitara fishermen Andrew Sharman, Wilson Montgomery and David Collingwood said
they saw a massive shark about 9am Friday, about 3km off Motunui.
The shark was at least 5m long and its grey dorsal fin was sticking more than half a metre out of the water, the men told the Taranaki Daily News.
During the summer of 2006 a 6m great white, dubbed the "Taranaki Terror", forced the closure of Oakura Beach when it was seen 300m offshore.
Department of Conservation programme manager Bryan Williams said a large great white had been cruising Taranaki's coastline for a few years and the fishermen had probably seen the same shark.
In the Bay of Plenty a 2.5 bronze whaler was caught in a fishing net off Papamoa beach last Saturday.
Another two sharks were spotted swimming about 100m south of the club's flags on New Year's day, Omanu Surf Rescue head lifeguard Isaac Gilmore told the Bay of Plenty Times.
The Department of Fisheries said bronze whalers were common off ocean beaches in the top half of the North Island at this time of year.
Mount Maunganui beach patrol captain Andrew Park said sharks were a fact of life and caused few problems.
"If you do see one, get out of the water and alert people immediately around you. Then tell the nearest lifeguard and we will take appropriate action," he told the newspaper.
In Northland a 2.5m mako shark has been seen daily for the past week at Ocean Beach, 36km south-east of Whangarei, swimming under a surfer on one occasion.
Whangarei Heads Volunteer Surf Lifesaving Club patrol captain Rob Howes said he had emailed a shark expert for advice on whether life guards should get swimmers out of the water when the shark was seen or just get used to it being around.
He was unsure if the mako was a small shark, which had been seen in the area during the past 10 years, grown larger , he told the Northern Advocate.
"We don't know whether it's a pregnant female which has come close inshore to breed or whether it has been hanging around for years."
A great white shark, which had been seen in previous years, had not been spotted so far this summer.
Marine conservationist Wade Doak said the mako would not put him off from going into the water.
Sharks usually only bit a person by mistake and people should learn to live with them, he told the Northern Advocate.
"There are always risks in life. I think you would be more likely to get hurt standing on a stingray than being bitten by a shark."
He advised surfers to wear dark wetsuit boots, so they were not dangling white legs in the water.
"When a shark is looking up, it could spot a white foot on the surface but wouldn't easily see something dark."
There have been about 45 unprovoked shark attacks recorded in New Zealand since 1852 -- nine fatal.
The Department of Conservation advises:
* Stay calm if you see a shark, as panicking might make the shark think you are wounded prey.
* If attacked, hit the shark as hard as you can on the head to buy some time to get away and make it think twice of attacking you.
* Any shark longer than 1.8m should be considered dangerous.
- NZPA
