'Cage operators not to blame'
2004-04-06 12:06
Cape Town - The National Sea rescue Insitute (NSRI), the Sharks Board and Marine and Coastal Management have all downplayed claims that the shark involved in Monday's Muizenberg Beach attack on 16-year-old surfer John Paul Andrew, was lured to the area by cage diving operators.
According to Sharks Board spokesperson, Simon Dudley, "There is nothing new about great whites occurring in the False Bay area. Flying behind the backline, on any given day, there would be good chances of seeing great whites. Seal Island, near Simon's Town, is a point of focus, with the sharks preying on the seals."
"An incident like this at Muizenberg is not a reason to look for an external cause. I don't think it's likely that cage diving operations are drawing sharks to the area. The sharks were there already. When there's an incident like this one, it's natural that people look for external causes, and cage diving comes under spotlight.
"Cage diving operations are restricted to specific spots, their modus operandi, according to permit conditions, is to set up a chum slick in the water to attract sharks, then bait is dragged on a rope to attract the sharks to the cage. Protocol prevents operators from feeding the sharks, but sometimes it's unavoidable that sharks get hold of the bait. It's unlikely that there's any real incidence of prolonged feeding.
'No reasonable grounds'
"Our initial assessment is that there are no reasonable grounds linking shark attacks to dive operations."
A spokesperson for Marine and Coastal Management, who refused to be named, confirmed the Sharks Board's analysis, adding that, due to the high number of sharks in False Bay, he was amazed that there hadn't been more attacks.
According to NSRI spokesperson, Craig Lambinon, "We believe that the animal involved in the attack was a five-metre-long great white.
"The beach has been temporarily closed. The Nokia helicopter will be patrolling the area, looking for sharks this morning [Tuesday]."
The beach will remain closed until it has been ascertained that there is no longer a threat of more shark attacks in the area. Lambinon refused to make any direct correlation between cage diving in the area and the cause of the attack.
According to the Sharks Board, this was the first attack on Muizenberg Beach in twenty years, the last being in 1984, when a surfer, Selwyn Boran, was attacked by what was believed to be a great white. Boran narrowly missed injury when his board was bitten.
There have been 57 shark attacks in the Cape in the past decade, according to the Sharks Board, seven in the greater Cape Town area, of which five were in False Bay.
Andrew underwent surgery on his leg at the Constantiaberg Medi-Clinic on Monday night, and is being held under heavy sedation, in a critical but stable condition. It is not yet known when he will be allowed to regain consciousness.
According to Steve Pike, editor of www.wavescape.co.za the following simple rules should be followed to reduce the chance of shark attacks:
Don't surf at dawn or dusk
Don't surf near river mouths or in flood
Don't urinate in your wetsuit
Don't surf with a bleeding wound