Summer sharks: Pāpāmoa beachgoer wrangles and refloats beached bronze whaler shark

Pāpāmoa Beach attendees watched on this afternoon as a man dragged a bronze whaler shark back into the ocean after his son had reeled it ashore not long before.

In a video and photos seen by the Herald, beachgoers could be seen surrounding the beached shark while the man splashed water on top of it.

In another video, he could be seen dragging the shark by its tail and pulling it out into the sea before it swam away.

A bronze whaler shark was refloated from shallow surf at Pāpāmoa Beach. Photo / supplied

The man told the Herald his son had been standing in the surf with a rod and reel, hoping to bag a shark.

“We put some bait in the water and stuck a rod in. They are always there.”

They decided to throw it back because they thought “it would be wrong to keep it.”

“There would be no need to eat it.”

Today’s sighting is another in a summer of shark encounters near New Zealand beaches.

A 10-year-old fisherman was wowed by a close encounter with a mako shark in Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf earlier, last Wednesday.

Taj Chapples was caught on camera saying “Holy sh*t, that’s a f***ing big mako,” during a family trip off Kauwau Island.

A bronze whaler shark was stranded in shallow waters on Pāpāmoa Beach this afternoon. Photo / supplied

A boatie off Northland’s Hen and Chicken Islands faced an encounter with a 4m great white shark that circled his boat for over an hour, earlier this week.

Fisherman Warwick Catchpole told the Herald the animal “chewed” on the boat’s motor and burley pot while the stunned boaties watched the encounter in awe.

“It was surreal.”

Surf Lifesaving eastern manager Chaz Gibbons-Campbell said in the last two weeks we’ve had 42 sightings across Coromandel and Bay of Plenty.

“That’s from lifeguards seeing sharks swimming by, and most of them are on the small size range, so sort of under a metre and a half.”

Last month, a Southland woman was attacked by a shark while wading through a South Island estuary.

The 21-year-old suffered a significant leg wound in a late-night attack while wading in knee-deep water at about 2am.

Southland Police said the woman was walking through the water near the Riverton rugby grounds when she was bitten.

“The culprit is possibly a sevengill shark, which is present in the estuary. The time of day is a possible factor,” police said.