A great white shark fishing story is the kind of tale readily re-told, blow-by-blow, again and again.

The foreboding. The sudden realisation of what's happening. The panicked cutting of lines, scrambling, and yelling. The breach. The shock. The awe.

Not so long ago, it would have been an almost unbelievable rarity to hear such a story at Bowentown – a popular summer spot perched on a peninsula along the white sand coast from Waihī Beach, at the northern end of Tauranga Harbour.

But not any more.

Dave Hope has a fishing story about a great white, out there on the Bowentown Bar in his 12ft tinny.

So does Peter Rogers and his old man, Tim. In fact, they have two. And Peter's daughter, Kerry, has her own tale to tell.

'Five years ago, if someone had said there was a great white in the harbour, you would have said ‘nah, that's rubbish,'” Stu Curd, commodore of the Bowentown Boating and Sport Fishing Club, told Stuff this week.

'But now they're being seen all the time by very reputable fishermen, there's some really good stories out there about what they've seen.”

More than a few of these Bowentown great white shark sightings have ended up online and in the media over the past year, where they have quickly accumulated into a string of stories, each new article referencing the others.

It seems to have only ramped up over summer.

The near-constant coverage has irked some in town, partly because local shark sightings have taken on a new meaning since the death of Kaelah Marlow, a 19-year-old who was swimming off the beach at Bowentown when she was attacked by what is thought to be a great white in early January 2021.

'That was devastating for the community and the family,” Curd said.

This week there were flowers on the beach at Bowentown, left there for the one-year anniversary of Kaelah's death.

Everyone you speak to knows about the fatal shark attack. It has left a mark on this beachside community, and is front of mind at this time of year. Especially when there are regular reminders in the form of new sightings.

Curd said there is a 'helluva concern” that the word Bowentown could become synonymous with great white shark.

If that was to happen, it would no doubt scare away some holidaymakers.

'Hopefully it hasn't reached that point, I don't know, hopefully it doesn't.”

The regular coverage will definitely not be helping in that regard but, at the same time, there is no hiding the fact there are several great white sharks active off the coast of Bowentown.

And, naturally, that does worry some people.

'There's obvious concern that someone could well end up getting bitten,” Curd said.

He believes there are safe places to swim and play in the water at Bowentown, and places to avoid.

'I wouldn't go biscuiting up the harbour with my kids.”

Curd isn't alone in talking – and thinking – about the possible risk. A shark scientist, Dr Riley Elliott, visited Bowentown in early December to talk at a public meeting, and the fishing club was packed with locals.

Elliott was quick to settle the nerves, telling those gathered that 'to be honest, I think you can really be at ease with the scenario here”.

'Yes, something tragic happened a year ago,” he said.

'That was a really rare event where just a few sets of variables that rarely occur, all happened at once.”

Elliott acknowledged the presence of great whites, also known as white sharks.

He told the crowd he had been out on a boat off Bowentown earlier that same day, 'and in 10 minutes of just fishing, normal snapper fishing, we had a little white shark come up the back of the boat, looked at us, went straight back down, and got on with its day”.

Elliott quickly put that in perspective for those listening in the clubrooms.

'You can smell the kitchen in there. If you were hungry, and your job was to eat food, you'd probably walk over there and have a look,” he said.

'The main story that I'm getting from everyone here, all the reports are in a tiny hotspot in the channel, where people are burleying, for snapper, as we do, fishing, and sharks come up and look at them. Sharks come up and steal their fish. Sharks come up and bite the prop. Sharks are just being sharks.”

Elliott said it was important to recognise the context of these shark sightings, and the situations in which they occur.

'If you go and overlap with a guy fishing, and he's got burley out the back, and he's got panicking fish, and you go for a freestyle through the back of that chum slick, you're putting yourself in a much more heightened scenario,” he said.

'The only dangerous situation I really see out here, where something could be mitigated, is when you overlap that food expectation with a shark, and your own activity.”

Elliott said he was referring to the designated ski lane being in a similar area to where people go fishing and see great whites.

'Don't overlap recreation with people fishing.”

Ultimately, he said he wanted people to leave the meeting feeling comfortable about their environment. He said he didn't think there needed to be drastic measures of change, just awareness.

'I swim with sharks for a living and I can guarantee they don't eat people on purpose, they don't bite people on purpose.”

A few days before Christmas, the Department of Conservation put out a statement with a similar message.

Reports of great whites in the Tauranga area had increased since May 2020, DOC said, and six individual sharks had so far been identified. An estimate of the total number in the area could not be confirmed.

Marine expert Clinton Duffy said it was common for great whites to develop preferences for certain sites and return regularly.

'Sharks are predatory animals but do not normally perceive humans as prey and most encounters with white sharks do not result in the shark biting the human,” he said.

Duffy said people need to be a bit vigilant and aware of what's happening around them, swim where there are surf lifesaving patrols, and don't swim or dive alone.

'If you are heading out on the water exercise caution and avoid swimming in the main channels where there are a lot of birds diving, or burleying from kayaks and jet skis when fishing.”

Marine biologist Melissa Kellett said in the DOC statement that the large number of great white sightings were not only in the Bowentown area of the Tauranga Harbour but also along the coastline.

She said the size estimates of these sharks had been between 1.5m and 3.5m in length, indicating they are primarily juveniles and sub-adults.

This matches the accounts of Bowentown fishers Stuff spoke to this week.

Dave Hope – a keen fisherman who has lived in the area about 18 years – was fishing at the Bowentown Bar in his 12ft tinny with a friend late last year, and was reeling in a fourth trevally, when a great white suddenly came out of the water and had a go at it.

He estimates the shark was up to 2.5m long.

The trevally was at the side of the boat and his mate was about to net it from the front.

'And just out of nowhere, eh, just straight up, this shark comes ... boof, out of the water, right on the side,” Hope said.

'It jumped from the back to the front, towards him, along the side of the boat. We just jumped back, bloody yelling, ‘holy s..., what the f... was that!?' I knew what it was.

'We just got the hell out of there, eh. It rocked our whole boat. If it landed that far over, it would have landed on the side and tipped that boat out, and would've tipped us in with it.”

He said it was 'definitely a great white”.

'Never really heard of them around here until the last three years ... I've been fishing here most of my life and never heard of anyone catching one or seeing one around this area, especially not in the harbour.”

Hope, who also surfs at Bowentown, said 'it's on our minds now, that's for sure”.

'I don't feel so vulnerable surfing, but definitely swimming. Like, if I take the kids out to the beach or something, don't go so deep any more.”

Peter Rogers and his 89-year-old father Tim have fished off Bowentown for decades.

'That's all we do,” Peter said with a laugh.

He said they had never seen a great white shark before, until one day in December. They were also fishing at the Bowentown Bar at the time.

'We were just waiting for the tide to turn and a 9kg gas cylinder went past us. It was going with the tide first, and then it came flying back against the tide.”

Somehow, the gas cylinder had become attached to a shark, which was now swimming in their direction 'at pace”.

Tim managed to quickly get his line in, but Peter's was caught.

The cylinder started heading around the front of the boat, towards the anchor. Peter quickly cut his line.

'And within a few seconds of cutting the line, the great white just breached within two metres of the boat, like straight up and down, fully out of the water, and landed,” he said.

Peter estimates the shark was about 3.5m long, 'no doubt about it”.

'It was a big fish,” he said.

'It was a great sight. Best sight I've seen.”

About a week later, Peter and his dad were out fishing again and saw another great white, this one smaller, about 1.5m long. It also breached.

Then Peter's daughter, Kerry Rogers, was out on New Year's Eve and was reeling in a big kingfish when it was taken by a great white.

She was only left with the kingy's head.

'It stole my fish, I was pissed off,” she said with a laugh.

The great white was right beside the boat, Kerry said, 'I could have just leant down and touched it”.

She said she could also see another one out a bit further, away from the boat.

'Usually we'd jump off the boat and have a swim around, I wouldn't do that any more,” she said.

'Just because I've personally seen it now.”

But Kerry said they still swim at Anzac Bay and the beach and, at the end of the day, the ocean is where sharks live.

'This summer it hasn't seemed to bother a lot of people, it's still been so busy.”

Peter agreed. 'We've just got to live with them, they're here at the moment.”

There have been 'quite regular” shark sightings right along the coast, including at Bowentown, this summer, according to Chaz Gibbons-Campbell, surf lifesaving manager for the eastern region.

These have been general sightings, not specifically great whites, and there have been no incidents reported, he said. The lifeguards always take precautions, as is standard practice.

'There's been a number of occasions where lifeguards have had to close the beach temporarily, but they haven't seen aggressive sharks or anything like that. Most of the time these guys are just cruising, basking in the shallow waters.

'People have been really good. Every time the lifeguards have gone to close the flags, everybody's exited the water really calmly, and they've listened to the lifeguards' advice, and they've chilled out on the beach for a little while.”

The Bowentown fishing stories involving great white sharks, as dramatic and memorable as they are, are certainly not going to stop Maxine Payne from getting into the water.

She has lived in the area for more than 20 years and was swimming down at Anzac Bay this week when Stuff dropped by.

'At 82, I'm going to enjoy the beach regardless,” she said.

'You've just got to have respect, it's their habitat.”

Payne said, in her personal opinion, the issue has been overblown, by stories in the media and 'all these chat things”.

'They might see one shark when they're fishing and then everybody looks at it, and they're scared to go in the water. My opinion is that you've got to respect the things that live in the sea because that's their home, and we're the intruders, really.

'If I get eaten, I get eaten,” she added with a laugh.

'It's a pity if you're scared to enjoy what you've got ... you can't be scared of everything in life can you? Or you wouldn't live at all.”

Scott Yeoman/Stuff