Barracuda bites Kiwi musician 

As the spectre of big sharks being drawn to warm inshore waters puts divers, swimmers and surfers on edge, another aquatic attack very nearly ended the career of one of New Zealand's best musicians.

Keyboardist Iain Gordon of dub act Fat Freddys Drop was attacked by a barracuda on Friday while fishing in knee deep water just off Waikanae beach north of Wellington.

Gordon suffered tendon and nerve damage to his arm which required plastic surgery at Lower Hutt Hospital.

He is expected to recover in time for the group's next concert in February.

Further out to sea a group of divers risked it all for a good photo of a great white shark approaching their boat.

"We took a few on the old camera just dunked it in cos they're water proof for a bit, but the pictures weren't coming out very clear because we were just dunking it in and taking the pictures. We needed a better shot so ultimately you had to be looking through the screen to see what you were taking photos of," says diver Garry Porter.

The divers then grabbed Porter's feet and lowered him over the edge of the boat to take photos.

They said the shark came within two metres which they admit is "probably not that far really".

Their close encounter is the latest in a series of shark sightings around New Zealand. Off Northland's Ocean Beach a 2.5 metre Mako has been spotted on a daily basis. A similar size bronze whaler was caught of Papamoa in the Bay of Plenty recently, and a five-metre great white dubbed the Taranaki Terror has reportedly returned for the summer.

Three fishermen spotted a massive shark off the coast at Motunui in north Taranaki, possibly the Taranaki Terror, which they say was at least five metres long with a dorsal fin sticking more than half a metre out of the water.

DOC says the great white has been cruising the Taranaki coastline for some years.

But with more people in the water, the increased sightings are not surprising.

"Several species do come into the shallow coast waters during summer to either give birth to their young or to feed on schools fish that move in close sometimes even into the surf zone along the beaches," says NIWA spokesperson Malcolm Francis.

Marine scientist Clinton Duffy says New Zealand has a very low shark attack record, with an average of two each year but he says that any shark longer than 1.8 metres should be considered dangerous.