A group of people fishing off the coast of Whitianga in the Coromandel got quite a shock when an unexpected guest boarded their vessel over the weekend.
Churchys Charter NZ and five of its customers were hunting king fish when a huge mako shark leaped on their small charter boat. The extremely rare event was caught on camera by those on board in the north of New Zealand.
The mako shark, estimated to be around 150kg, according to skipper Ryan Churches, suddenly leaped out of the ocean after taking bait, landed on the front of their boat and wobbled around for nearly two minutes.
Churches told the New Zealand Herald, it was the first time he had witnessed a shark jumping into a boat and described the incident as ”bonkers”. He added that they were lucky the mako shark didn’t jump on the back of the boat where the customers were fishing. Watch the video on Facebook here.
Makos are the second most common shark found in New Zealand waters.