Freak wave 'totally unforeseen'

2008-04-14 12:51

Verashni Pillay

Cape Town - The "freak" wave that capsized a shark diving boat on Sunday killing three tourists could not have been predicted, according to experts, despite the fact that the sea looked choppy to the untrained eye.

National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) spokesperson Craig Lambinon said the NSRI supported statements by White Shark Projects, the company which operated the boat, saying that the sea was flat.

"To our understanding it was relatively calm conditions yesterday," he told News24 on Monday, adding that shark diving in those conditions was not unusual.

'Sounds rough'

"Two metre swells and 10-15 knot winds sounds like rough seas," said Lambinon, referring to the weather conditions before the accident. "But that doesn't mean it was rough."

However eyewitnesses said the sea was choppy in contrast to statements from industry body, the Great White Shark Foundation, that the sea was "absolutely flat".

Marili Esterhuyse who was on the boat at the time with her boyfriend, Cheetahs' centre Hendrik Meyer, said that the sea was "turbulent" when the boat set off from Kleinbaai near Gansbaai early on Sunday morning.

An anonymous resident of Kleinbaai told Beeld that the sea was rougher than usual on the morning of the accident.

However Lambinon pointed out that to the untrained eye the sea may have looked choppy but was in fact calm enough.

"You've got to put it into perspective - how well does that person know the sea? What might be rough seas to one person might be calm seas to another."

Meanwhile officials from the South African Maritime Safety Authority began their investigation into the accident on Monday morning.

Police involved

Gansbaai police too were investigating the exact circumstances surrounding the incident and three case dockets had been registered.

The Great White Shark Foundation chairperson, Mariette Hopley, said the crew involved in the accident had been called together for interviews.

"Regulations in our industry are extremely strict," she said. "There is nothing that we can jack up."

While it is mandatory that each person on board a shark diving catamaran wears a life jacket, Hopley said the 19 passengers in the accident had all changed into their diving equipment and could not wear life jackets.

Lambinon emphasised that there was no way to anticipate the "freak" wave that capsized the boat, causing the three tourists to drown.

"There is no official term for something like this, it's just something that happens on the ocean," he said. "Every now and again you have a wave that picks up higher than normal for an unknown reason."

"You have to be humble to the ocean, it's a place where the unknown happens."

- News24