Hunt continues for killer shark

Muriwai Beach on Auckland's west coast remains closed today while the hunt continues for a killer shark.

Award winning film maker and television commercial director Adam Strange was fatally attacked yesterday afternoon by a shark, thought to be a great white and estimated to be 3.5m long.

The 46-year-old father-of-one was a regular at the popular beach and today, flags have been lowered to half mast in memory of him.

His family have described him as a "glorious and great father, husband and friend".

Signs have been erected along the beach warning swimmers not to enter the sea, but other beaches in the area are open.

Mr Strange was seen waving for help before other beachgoers realised what was happening in the water and called 111.

The police Eagle helicopter spotted the shark while it was still attacking him and stayed above until officers got to the beach.

One officer was sent out on the water in an inflatable rescue boat with three lifeguards.

He fired about a dozen shots at the shark, and lifeguards battered its head away from Mr Strange with oars until it sank out of sight, but it's body is yet to be found.

At least one bullet hit it, but it was not known if it was dead or injured.

Mr Strange's body was pulled into the inflatable and taken to shore, where his wife, Meg, and other family were waiting.

Just before the attack, several hundred pupils of Glen Eden Intermediate were swimming nearby.

"Just after we got out of the water, the Westpac helicopter came over and then we saw the policeman get into the IRB," parent helper Tracy Howarth said last night.

Police and the coastguard will fly over the area today in an attempt to determine what happened to the shark.

Up to three other sharks were thought to have been in the area, possibly feeding on fish and birds, and Mr Strange swam right into the middle of them.

A service will be held at the beach this morning (8am) where local Maori elders will lift the tapu and perform a karakia.

Muriwai Volunteer Lifeguard Service chairman Tim Jago said just before the attack, Mr Strange had been swimming to friends in the sea for a chat.

"So it could have been any one of a number of people, it just happened to be Adam," he told TVNZ's Breakfast show.

He said Mr Strange knew all the lifeguards, and many were involved in the effort to rescue him.

Councillors had been brought in to help staff.

The last confirmed shark attack death was about 40 years ago, so lifeguards had not been trained on how to deal with the situation, Mr Jago said.

"We cobbled a plan together pretty quickly, on the hoof, and it came together really, really well.

"If there's a happy bit to this whole thing, was that we got Adam's body back to his family and that doesn't always happen in these kind of events."

Mr Strange was a few hundred metres from the shore when he was attacked.

He had been training for a distance harbour swim and was a strong swimmer, Mr Jago said.

On his website, Mr Strange said one of his short films, Aphrodite's Farm, set on a dairy farm in the 1930s, had been in 10 film festivals and last year won the Crystal Bear award for Best Short Film at the Berlin Film Festival.

He was also a finalist in the global Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival and the London International Awards.

Mr Strange began making commercials in 1995 and was a director for Silver Screen Productions, in Auckland, for more than 10 years.

His work took him to Japan, China, Thailand, Malaysia, the United States and Europe.

In his biography, he described his love of the outdoors and spending time with his family.

"When I get a spare five minutes, I like to make a fruit smoothy, surf some big waves out on the west coast, point my skis down a mountain with Meg, haul my mountain bike up and down a few hills, drink some Pinot while scratching away at a film script."

 

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