Shark victim's body found

2004-06-07 18:00

Cape Town - Police have released the name of the diver who died in a reported shark attack off Pearly Beach on the south Cape coast during a perlemoen (abalone) poaching expedition last week.

Boland police spokesperson Captain William Reid said on Monday he was Nkosinathi Mayaba, 21, of Gansbaai.

His mutilated body was found by a member of the public at Quoin Point about 15km east of the scene of the attack.

Reid said shark experts would be brought to the Hermanus mortuary where the body was being kept, to confirm it was a shark attack.

The diver was part of a group in the water off Pearly Beach last Wednesday, he said.

"Someone actually saw him being taken by the shark," he said. "From the police point of view we don't have confirmation as to what they were really doing in the water."

Cape Town newspapers reported however that other members of the group openly admitted that they were poaching, and gave eyewitness accounts of Mayaba's death.

Perlemoen poaching, often organised by gangs, is rife in the area, and is a major headache for conservation authorities.

- SAPA