Cape Town issues shark alert
2007-08-21 14:02
Cape Town - The City of Cape Town issued a great white shark warning on Tuesday ahead of what it said was a seasonal increase in numbers of the predators off the city's beaches.
"Although white sharks are present in our waters all year round, we are approaching the time of the year when the possibility of encountering one of these animals is much greater," Gregg Oelofse of the city's environmental resource management department said.
He said sharks moved from the waters around the seal colony on Seal Island in False Bay in the winter, to the coastal inshore areas during the summer.
Over the past five years, the period of mid-August to end September had seen the highest numbers of interactions between white sharks and recreational users of the sea.
People using the ocean should be "extra vigilant" over the next few months.
On Monday, shark spotters sighted a shark at Fish Hoek beach just after midday - the first in the area in months.
- SAPA