Hundreds of sharks are filmed in shallow water

Amazing drone footage has captured hundreds of sharks, metres away from swimmers and stand-up paddle boarders at a popular beach in New Zealand. The mass shark sighting was spotted by a young snorkeller in shallow waters at Great Barrier Island in the Hauraki Gulf 90 kilometres off the coast of Auckland on Saturday according to the Daily Mail.

The footage included a number of species, including thresher and hammerhead sharks.

“The biggest one I saw [while snorkelling] was maybe four or five feet but when I was using the drone I could see some big ones,” Zach Judkins, who filmed them, told the New Zealand Herald.

“We finally found out why the fishing has been so bad.”

The 16-year-old has previously filmed the impressive phenomena but not on this scale.

Previously there might have been a hundred or so but this year there were “probably a couple of thousand,” he says.

“Sharks of all shapes and sizes were basking in the sun along with the swimmers at Gooseberry Flat this afternoon,” says his mother.

Young paddle boarders were also in the vicinity, and according to a local: “they all changed their minds when they saw how many sharks there were.”

In 2018, Department of Conservation shark scientist, Clinton Duffy, told the Herald it was not uncommon to see schools of baby hammerheads in the area.

“The Hauraki Gulf and the Firth of Thames are one of the largest hammerhead nursery grounds in New Zealand that we know of,” he said.

“The west coast of the North Island, the Hauraki Gulf, and parts of the western and eastern Bay of Plenty are the hotspots for baby hammerheads.”

Young hammerheads tend to like warm, shallow, productive waters.

Shark attacks in New Zealand are rare, with 113 unprovoked incidents reported since 1840.