The Bronze Whaler Shark is a big, fast and beautiful looking shark. It is found cruising around New Zealand waters between the spring and the autumn months, and down to the Cooks Straight in the Summer. This species of shark is also found around South Australia, California, South Africa, Peru and South West Atlantic.
Bronze Whalers are often seen close inshore feeding on schooling fish, such as mullet and kahawai, frequently within the surf zone, and they often enter shallow bays and estuaries.
They are also found around some offshore islands over deeper water where they feed on squid as well as other pelagic and bottom-dwelling fish.
The Bronze Whalers body is a brown bronze to grey colour, and it obviously has a bronze glow on the top sides especially when seen in the bright sunlight (I had a close encounter of this at the bluff on the 90 mile beach).
They have a pale colouration from just below the dorsal fin to the tail. The tips of the fins may be darker but they are never black.
Their teeth are rather small and have fine serations, the upper teeth have a distinct outwardly hooked shape.
The average size is about 2mts or 7ft, though adults can grow to 3.5mts or around 10ft.
They are around 60 cm in length at birth.