{"id":343799,"date":"2026-03-23T14:34:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T14:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/343799\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T14:34:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T14:34:14","slug":"drone-footage-shows-large-bronze-whaler-shark-close-to-bowentown-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/343799\/","title":{"rendered":"Drone footage shows large bronze whaler shark close to Bowentown Beach"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI was running up the beach to tell the people because I was concerned that someone might decide to go for a swim because it was a big boy.\u201d<\/p>\n

He spotted the shark on March 15 at about 3pm.<\/p>\n

\"DroneDrone footage captured off Bowentown Beach has revealed what appears to be a large shark cruising close to shore. Photo \/ The Traveller<\/p>\n

Brent said he was there for about 10 minutes before spotting the shark and saw it just past the breakers \u201ccruising\u201d down the beach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were even people in the water at about knee-depth, and I could kind of see that it [shark] was looking at them, but it wasn\u2019t really interested.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brent said he couldn\u2019t clearly tell what type of shark it was, but even a \u201cbig bronzy\u201d could be dangerous \u2013 a risk he wasn\u2019t willing to take.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a little bit hard to positively identify it, but it\u2019s big regardless of whether it\u2019s a bronzy or a great white. It\u2019s like at least three metres, I reckon.\u201d<\/p>\n

The latest sighting follows the fatal shark attack<\/a> at Bowentown on January 7, 2021, in which 19-year-old Kaelah Marlow of Hamilton was killed. <\/p>\n

The incident heightened awareness of sharks in the region.<\/p>\n

Since then, sightings have become more frequent, with encounters reported as often as twice weekly by 2021\u20132022<\/a>, and continued activity in later summers.<\/p>\n

\"DroneDrone footage captured off Bowentown Beach has revealed what appears to be a large shark cruising close to shore. Photo \/ The Traveller<\/p>\n

Brent said he had previously seen bronze whalers using his drone and, on sunny days, they came close to shore, bathing in the sun.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was cruising along the bottom, you can see it\u2019s not sticking its fin up out of the water.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the shark was in the \u201cexact location\u201d where the last attack happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow often is this shark there? Or is it even the same shark? I don\u2019t know. I\u2019m just speculating, but it\u2019s pretty scary stuff, to be honest. I wouldn\u2019t be swimming around there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Riley Elliott, also known as Shark Man, confirmed the shark seen in the drone footage was a bronze whaler.<\/p>\n

Elliott said the best way to tell was by the longer upper lobe of the tail versus the lower lobe.<\/p>\n

The bronze whaler shark (Carcharhinus brachyurus) is a large, slender, fast-moving species recognised by its bronze to olive-grey back, white underbelly, and narrow, hook-shaped tooth structure.<\/p>\n

Growing up to 3.5m, it features a pointed snout, moderately large pectoral fins, and lacks a prominent ridge between its dorsal fins<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very common for bronze whalers to be inshore over our warmer summer time,\u201d Elliott said.<\/p>\n

Kaitlyn Morrell<\/a> is a journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and the Rotorua Daily Post. She has lived in the region for several years and studied journalism at Massey University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI was running up the beach to tell the people because I was concerned that someone might decide…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7972,183349,32126,651,25094,19473,3242,111,43,139,69,7971,418,61,183348],"class_list":["post-343799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-beach","tag-bowentown","tag-bronze","tag-close","tag-drone","tag-footage","tag-large","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-shark","tag-shows","tag-to","tag-whaler"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}