Isaac Construction chief executive Jeremy Dixon said a member of its Greymouth-based Liddell Construction team was preparing for piling work in about 2m of water close to shore when he was confronted by a sizeable shark.
Mr Dixon said the diver had been working around the bottom of a pile and stirred up some silt, when "out of nowhere there was a shark".
"It came up and nudged his weight belt. It was a bit of a shock to everyone."
The large shark was identified as a sevengill, one of New Zealand’s most common inshore sharks, and mainly a nocturnal forager.
Mr Dixon said it was the dive team’s first shark encounter on a job.
The team had spent weeks in the same water carrying out assessments and filming underwater.
The shark was estimated at about 2.5m long.
While it was no great white, it was still a "proper shark", Mr Dixon said.
"It was your run-of-the-mill sevengill, but still — they’ve all got teeth.
"We’re all very lucky... There was no injury to the diver at all but it was a hell of a shock."
Seasoned fishermen have shared sightings of large sharks in Jackson Bay, Haast and the Hokitika Trench over the years.
In 2012, Dougie Whyte recalled seeing a giant white pointer come up alongside the boat.
At 9m, it was almost half the length of the boat.
"The teeth on it you wouldn’t believe. It had a huge white nose and barnacles along its back. It’d scare the living daylights out of you."
— by Janna Sherman of Hokitika Guardian
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Re. the "9m White Shark" reported in 2012...no doubt it was a big animal, but White Sharks rarely exceed 6m - and certainly none have ever been ever accurately recorded at anywhere close to 9m in length. Only Basking Sharks and Whale Sharks are known to reach 9m or more.