Ritual behind shark attacks?

2009-05-19 16:08

Johannesburg - The ritual slaughter of animals on a beach at Port St Johns might be to blame for two fatal shark attacks there this year, a special task team said in a reported released on Tuesday.

The task team was set up to probe the attacks.

Also conducive to shark attacks was the beach's proximity to the Umzimvubu River, "a well known nursery ground for Zambezi sharks", the Natal Sharks Board team of experts found.

Wild Coast lifeguard Sikhanyiso Bangilizwe, 27, died when he was savagely attacked by a shark in January this year, according to the Dispatch online. He was the second lifeguard fatally attacked in two years.

Just two months later, a 16-year-old youth died 30 minutes after he was attacked. It appeared that the shark slashed veins in the teenager's thigh, the Dispatch reported.

Zambezi sharks captured

In a statement issued jointly with the department of environmental affairs and tourism, the sharks' board said newborn and juvenile Zambezi sharks had been captured in the Umzimvubu River.

It said both Zambezi and tiger sharks were notorious scavengers and would have been attracted to Second Beach at Port St Johns by the smell of blood and other animal remains from the ritual slaughtering of animals on the beach.

The report recommended these rituals be carried out well away from Second Beach, and any other beaches used by swimmers and surfers.

It found poor water quality as a result of sewerage entering the river or the sea was not likely to have been a significant factor in the attacks.

No shark nets

At the time of Bangilizwe's death, his nephew, Lumka Bangilizwe, also a lifeguard, blamed the attack on an absence of shark nets and the animal rituals conducted there by traditional healers, the Dispatch reported.

"Then what do you expect? Sharks smell all of that and come near where people are swimming," he told the Dispatch at the time, claiming the municipality knew about the practice, but did nothing to stop it.

Environmental experts, meanwhile, suggested that untreated sewage in the water might have attracted bait fish and, in turn, sharks, but the municipality denied there had been a spillage of sewage into the ocean.

Signs must be erected

The sharks board and environmental affairs department said the report recommended signs be erected at the beach warning users of the possibility of shark attacks.

It also suggested swimmers be advised to swim in groups and stay close to the shore.

"These signs will be erected by the municipality, whose responsibility is in the area of the safety of the bathers and the management of amenities associated with the beach," they said.

- SAPA