Despite hark attacks around the world increasing as more people take to the ocean, Port St Johns, one of the most shark attack-prone bathing beaches in the world, had no attacks this festive season.
.Authorities said this was possibly due to 30 extra lifeguards on duty and guards patrolling the backline on a jet-ski.
From 2007 to 2014, five swimmers and three surfers were killed and a diver injured off Port St Johns, according to website sharkattackdata.com. Since 1920, there have been 127 attacks off Eastern Cape waters, 22 (17%) of them fatal.
According to the recently released international shark attack file, compiled by the Florida Museum of National History, there were 98 unprovoked shark attacks around the world last year. This was the highest number ever, beating the previous record of 88 in 2000.
The July 19 attack on Australian world champion surfer Mick Fanning during the televised final of the J-Bay Open was one of eight attacks in SA waters last year, none of them fatal. SA has suffered an average of two shark fatalities a year since 2010, compared to four deaths in 2009.
Just Surfing manager and photographer Ed Peinke said surfing had stopped in Port St Johns where local surfers and anglers believed fish were being forced closer in by trawlers and this, in turn, forced sharks to come closer.
Buffalo City Metro chief of marine sciences Siani Tinley said: “Sewage is one of the issues off Port St Johns.”
Author of The Reef: A legacy of surfing in East London, Glenn Hollands, said surfers had the most encounters with sharks, “but there are far more people in the water on a regular basis”.
Tinley felt that the arrival of cold water “could put us at risk of higher incidences with great whites”.
She suspected great whites had joined the unprecedented numbers of African penguins which arrived along with cold water and bait fish off East London this summer.
Port Elizabeth Bayworld shark expert Malcolm Smailes said great whites responded to temperature “upwellings and downwellings”, but they are also moving into hot tropical waters around Mauritius and Madagascar. Bull or Zambezi sharks would investigate sewage outflows but the “probability of attack is small”.
Marine biologist with Save our Seas Dr Alison Kock, advised: “Don’t swim alone; you are more vulnerable to attack and having others around helps in an emergency. If you don’t have shark spotters or lifeguards on duty, chat to surfers or fishermen about the risk.” — mikel@dispatch.co.za
East Cape ‘shark capital’ celebrates no attacks
.Authorities said this was possibly due to 30 extra lifeguards on duty and guards patrolling the backline on a jet-ski.
From 2007 to 2014, five swimmers and three surfers were killed and a diver injured off Port St Johns, according to website sharkattackdata.com. Since 1920, there have been 127 attacks off Eastern Cape waters, 22 (17%) of them fatal.
According to the recently released international shark attack file, compiled by the Florida Museum of National History, there were 98 unprovoked shark attacks around the world last year. This was the highest number ever, beating the previous record of 88 in 2000.
The July 19 attack on Australian world champion surfer Mick Fanning during the televised final of the J-Bay Open was one of eight attacks in SA waters last year, none of them fatal. SA has suffered an average of two shark fatalities a year since 2010, compared to four deaths in 2009.
Just Surfing manager and photographer Ed Peinke said surfing had stopped in Port St Johns where local surfers and anglers believed fish were being forced closer in by trawlers and this, in turn, forced sharks to come closer.
Buffalo City Metro chief of marine sciences Siani Tinley said: “Sewage is one of the issues off Port St Johns.”
Author of The Reef: A legacy of surfing in East London, Glenn Hollands, said surfers had the most encounters with sharks, “but there are far more people in the water on a regular basis”.
Tinley felt that the arrival of cold water “could put us at risk of higher incidences with great whites”.
She suspected great whites had joined the unprecedented numbers of African penguins which arrived along with cold water and bait fish off East London this summer.
Port Elizabeth Bayworld shark expert Malcolm Smailes said great whites responded to temperature “upwellings and downwellings”, but they are also moving into hot tropical waters around Mauritius and Madagascar. Bull or Zambezi sharks would investigate sewage outflows but the “probability of attack is small”.
Marine biologist with Save our Seas Dr Alison Kock, advised: “Don’t swim alone; you are more vulnerable to attack and having others around helps in an emergency. If you don’t have shark spotters or lifeguards on duty, chat to surfers or fishermen about the risk.” — mikel@dispatch.co.za
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