As the summer months start to arrive and the weather warms up again, Kiwis will begin flocking to beaches to soak up the sun.
But with summer comes more shark sightings and, with that, a fear people have of coming face-to-face with one.
However, seeing a shark in the water is nothing to worry about, Fish of the Day host Clarke Gayford says.
"A sign of a shark in the ocean is a sign of a healthy ocean, so it's a good thing to have sharks around," he told The Project.
"I have noticed there's definitely more certain types of sharks... but you shouldn't be worried, you should still be getting in the ocean and enjoying it."
But for beach-goers who do happen to encounter a shark, his advice is to "just stay calm".
"Every year we get into this fever pitch where newspapers love to run stories of sharks, but we have in our summer beaches in the North Island bronze whalers that come into pup, and they're often swimming up and down the back of breakers, and so they get spotted and people fly into a bit of an unnecessary panic," he said.
But if you make eye contact with a shark, you're "more or less going to be okay", and swimmers can leave the water quietly.
Gayford's had close encounters with sharks before, but admits he's "always loath" to share these stories since his job as a fisherman means he puts himself in situations that many people won't find themselves in.
One of his "worst" experiences occurred when he speared a kingfish but couldn't remove the spear.
"Occasionally, sharks do turn up and they go, 'I'll have that', and you can get out of the way," he said. "I'd had an incident where there was a bit of that going on and a mako turned up and it was just a little bit more aggressive than usual."
He said sharks are a common sighting while spearfishing and they're "incredible" to see.
"Mako sharks are one of the most evolved creatures on earth and to see it up close is amazing. It's when they turn their attention on you [that] things are not quite as amazing."
Watch his full interview on The Project above.
