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A great white shark, believed to be around 3m long, has been spotted leaping out of the water off the coast of���³󲹲Բ������.��

�³󲹲Բ������ Heads local Chris Nathan watched from his home overlooking Reotahi Bay as the��white pointer��made a “hell of splash” as it jumped earlier this afternoon.��

Nathan first saw the shark around 12pm but it proceeded to hang around for at least 40 minutes. During that time, he saw it leap out of the water twice.��

The sighting was the first time Nathan, a long-time �³󲹲Բ������ Heads resident, had seen a great white shark in the area or one jump for that matter.��

“I’ve seen a mako jump,” he said. “This definitely wasn’t a mako though or a bronzie [bronze whaler].”��

Nathan recognised it as a great white because of the shark’s white underbelly.��

While he thought the shark measured around 3m long, he said it could have been bigger based on the splash.��

��һ�ǿ����� of the shark was not a surprise to some as others shared recent encounters with great whites in the �³󲹲Բ������ Heads area.��

A woman said her 19-year-old son and his friend came across “a large one” as they spearfished at Peach Cove, near the Bream Head Scenic Reserve, on Boxing Day.��

She said the pair thought the shark had been bigger than their 12-foot [3.6m] boat.��

A New Zealand app that displays the locations of great white sharks in real time��shows a 1.4m baby great white, known as SWAJ, is currently off the coast of Kaipara near Glinks Gully.��

The Great White App shows SWAJ off the coast of Kaipara. Photo / Great White App��

Last March, SWAJ - Jaws backwards - spent more than a month nestled in the southern corner of Doubtless Bay in the Far North. The shark - described by shark scientist Dr Riley Elliott as the “cutest” and “smallest” he had seen - had journeyed from Tauranga Harbour to the Mangōnui coastline.��

At the time Elliott thought murky waters caused by Cyclone Gabrielle may have forced her out as hunting could have been difficult, or the nursery range of a great white shark could be larger than theorised.��

“The animals go where the food is,” he said.��

Elliott urged people, especially the older generation who grew up under the��Jaws��illusion, to take greater care in and around the country’s coasts by not leaving set nets unobserved.��

“There are still the 60- to 70-year-old men who still think a great shark is a dead shark,” he said.��

His advice for anyone who may catch a shark was to cut the line as close to the hook as possible and let it go.��

“Otherwise it could become distressed to the point of death.”��

According to the Department of Conservation, great white sharks are present around the New Zealand coastline all year round but most encounters occur between December and May.��

Shark sightings peak during spring and summer as several coastal shark species head inshore to pup and feed inshore.��