Sharks and their close relatives skates and rays are for the most part quite harmless. New Zealand has its own distinctive shark and ray fauna, with species occupying habitats ranging from the shores, to the open ocean, to the depths of the continental slope.
About 66 types of sharks are found in New Zealand waters ranging in size from the tiny pygmy shark which grows up to 27 cm long to the 12-metre long whale shark. Only a few species are listed here.
Until the mid-1990s large basking shark schools were seen regularly around New Zealands coastline. Now the second largest fish in the world is never rarely seen.
Smalltooth sand tiger sharks are mostly found in the deep waters of the outer continental shelf and upper continental slope off the North Island and oceanic ridges north of New Zealand.
The oceanic whitetip shark is a large highly migratory species that is most abundant in tropical regions of the world's oceans.
Found in tropical and warm temperate seas, the spine-tailed devil ray is a regular visitor to waters off the northern North Island.
Whale sharks are the world’s largest fish, growing up to 18 m long. These filter-feeding, highly migratory sharks are regularly seen in northern New Zealand’s waters in spring-summer and occasionally in the South Island too.
The oceanic manta ray is the only manta ray recorded from New Zealand. It is common off the northeast and west coasts of the North Island from spring to early autumn.
New Zealand is recognised as one of the world’s hot spots for great white sharks.