Hunt for shark after attack

leslie hempel

Professional Aquarist
Joined
7 May 2007
Posts
18,029
Reaction score
1,314
Location
East London
By Bronwynne Jooste, Murray Williams and Kowthar Solomons
Staff Reporters

The shark alarm was sounded along the False Bay coast soon after 9am today and authorities closed beaches from Strandfontein to Glencairn after a man was killed in a shark attack yesterday.

The attack, believed to have been by a great white shark, has added urgency to talks already under way between shark researchers and the City of Cape Town over a proposal to introduce real-time monitoring of the activity of tagged sharks in False Bay.

Meanwhile, shark researchers took to the water this morning to try to find the shark that attacked Lloyd Skinner, 37.

Several bathers at Fish Hoek beach ignored the flags alerting them to sharks in the area, enjoying their usual early morning swim. Lifeguards and city law enforcement officials were kept busy asking people to get out of the water.

The lifeguards came on duty at 7am today instead of their usual 10am start and will remain on duty until 6pm.

Fish Hoek resident Duncan Temple-Forbes said today that the incident had made him wary, but added that he would continue to swim at the beach.

Another, Jo Cullingworth, said residents were still in shock.

A lifeguard, who declined to be named, described yesterday's attack.

"I saw the fin. I stood up and saw it do a 360 and then it spun around. It took the guy under.

"The shark's tail came out of the water. It was a big animal."

He alerted the other lifeguards by shouting "Shark, shark!" and then frantically ran from his tower on the beach into the surf.

"I was shouting: 'Shark,shark!' These bathers were about 15m away and not seeing what was happening.

"Then it was over. There was this pool of blood in the water."

Police spokesman November Filander said Skinner, a Zimbabwean on holiday, was swimming 100m from shore at 3.15pm when he was attacked by the shark.

Yesterday witnesses said the shark had attacked from a bend near the shore, a spot where they are regularly sighted.

Low visibility in the water had made it impossible for Skinner to react until it was too late.

After the initial attack, the shark had appeared to head back into deeper water, only to attack for a second time, lifeguards and other witnesses said.

Witness Kathy Geldenhuys said she had seen "what looked like a 5m shark rising from the water" and biting Skinner.

She described the water at the site of attack as "stained with blood".

Geldenhuys said she had started screaming "Shark!" and other swimmers had immediately got out of the water.

National Sea Rescue Institute's Ian Klopper led a team of lifeguards, three small vessels and a helicopter as they searched the shallows for the body.

The search continued at first light today.

"We have cancelled the air and sea search as it is no longer a search but a recovery.

"We are patrolling the beach," Klopper said.

Alison Kock, the white shark project leader with the Save Our Seas Foundation and Shark Spotters, said: "The Fish Hoek area is a home to the sharks so it wouldn't be uncommon for a shark sighting, especially during this season.

"Over the past weekend alone, we recorded 19 shark sighting between Muizenberg and Kalk Bay.

"Only one of those sightings was reported in Fish Hoek."

The poor visibility in the water had prevented the shark spotters from seeing the animal.

The last fatal shark attack in Fish Hoek was in November 2004 when Tyna Webb, 77, was killed by a shark after swimming 60m off Jagger Walk.

Professor Evan Gilbert, a former senior lecturer in finance at UCT's Graduate School of Business, said Skinner, an MBA student in 2003, had been a quiet, dedicated person.

Meanwhile, sophisticated monitoring equipment is to be discussed again soon in earnest between shark experts and the City of Cape Town. - Additional reporting by Jade Witten



    • This article was originally published on page 1 of Cape Argus on January 13, 2010
 
we had every fisherman out when we had the attack in dec in mozambique, they did catch him, but we had a good fisherman and took him around the bay and released him.
 
my question is WHY SO MANY SIGHTINGS OVER THIS PERIOD? east london has has shark sightings at yellow sands, gonubie, nahoon and eastern beach..

there has been alot of sewage in the water and perhaps recreational fishermen taking on the sport of shark fishing luring them closer ?..

the crux of the matter is that the sharks are frequenting bathing beaches more often..

very scary...
 
i have noticed it goes in spells, i think its to do with us as humans affecting the environment, more sewage, more fish, more sharks

look at those whales that beached in new zealand, really sad
 
i dont, sharks know by taste, chemically, that we are to lean, not enuff fat and blubber for them.
there is no mistaken identity, most shark attacks are fatal due to "bumping" a shark can only feel via light biting and nudging, and with us having weak skins and bones and most sharks being 2m or more, these tend to be fatal. sharks arent fans of human flesh.

in a test done in montery bay shark aquarium, electrodes were placed in various sharks and brainwaves monitored when different sources of blood added to the water and human blood actually repulsed them.

now the chemicals we have on our bodys are attactions for their curiousity, shampoos, urine in wetsuits, sex wax etc are all bell ringers and cause mistaken bites etc
 
the problem is a small bite for them is a big problem for us..

i have noticed a bit of a pattern forming, it sorta works the same as the fish catching cycle i have experienced with tropicals.. which in my experience follows a 5 year pattern .. a few years ago (2005/2006 i think) there was a simular hype about a mass of shark attacks around the world not only here but something like 22 - 24 attacks not sightings, attacks!!! were reported that year..
 
i would say no, on protea banks where the chum for tigers hasnt caused anymore attacks for natal south coast. i watch shark week every year and i am amazed at the new stuff they find out about sharks. but i do believe some species, aka carcharodon carcharias , great white shark, are just verocious predators and if you swim in the porridge pot expect to be eaten.

humans try and stay away from crocodiles and their rivers, oceans and sharks no different in my eyes...
 
We had a great white scare in jbay about two weeks ago, spotted @ Dolphin Beach, the life gards rushed people out, for about 90min!!
 
And i really wanted to go for a swim this afternoon:( its damm hot here today..

i have noticed it goes in spells, i think its to do with us as humans affecting the environment, more sewage, more fish, more sharks

look at those whales that beached in new zealand, really sad

Hey Dallas what about the whales that beached themselves hear at kommijie middle of last year now that was really sad:(
 
i would say no, on protea banks where the chum for tigers hasnt caused anymore attacks for natal south coast. i watch shark week every year and i am amazed at the new stuff they find out about sharks. but i do believe some species, aka carcharodon carcharias , great white shark, are just verocious predators and if you swim in the porridge pot expect to be eaten.

humans try and stay away from crocodiles and their rivers, oceans and sharks no different in my eyes...
Hey Dallas they are not allowed to cage dive on Protea because we have laws against it, but what happens is they are diving reefs of shelly that are about 500m offshore and this is luring the sharks especially your tigers and zambi's off the reef for an easy chow, associating humans with the chuming and baiting and the fisherman gutting just behind backline at shelly and st mikes beach is not helping either! I've dived Protea Banks since 1994 and have seen when the viz gets low on any dive know your sightings are going to be close.
Just takes one case of mistaken Identity!
 
my question is WHY SO MANY SIGHTINGS OVER THIS PERIOD? east london has has shark sightings at yellow sands, gonubie, nahoon and eastern beach..

there has been alot of sewage in the water and perhaps recreational fishermen taking on the sport of shark fishing luring them closer ?..

the crux of the matter is that the sharks are frequenting bathing beaches more often..

very scary...

Les, i life guared last season and this season. i remember last season nahoon, gonubie and bonzas was closed all the time. this year has been no different.. i see a pattern. surf the kei in winter not summer!
 
Hey Dallas they are not allowed to cage dive on Protea because we have laws against it, but what happens is they are diving reefs of shelly that are about 500m offshore and this is luring the sharks especially your tigers and zambi's off the reef for an easy chow, associating humans with the chuming and baiting and the fisherman gutting just behind backline at shelly and st mikes beach is not helping either! I've dived Protea Banks since 1994 and have seen when the viz gets low on any dive know your sightings are going to be close.
Just takes one case of mistaken Identity!


Thats what I am taking about, thanks Brent for giving a sea level explanation to this for a 1500m above Gautie like me
 
i agree to an extent, but sharks vision underwater is relatively good
The Pelagic Shark Research Foundation - In the News
After 25 years of research, the demonization of sharks doesn't hold, he says. "It used to be believed that great white sharks did target humans; now we know that except in the rarest of instances, great white shark attacks are mistakes." Dr. Robert Lea, a marine biologist working for the state of California, goes further: "I used to call them shark attacks — now I call them incidents. It is not a case of sharks preying on humans. It is just humans sharing a spot in the ocean with sharks — at the wrong time."
 
as you can see i am PRO shark....
they are the most amazing predators we have
 
I just hope they don't kill the shark, that will be so wrong!
Posted via Mobile Device
 
Yeah Tobes, I agree they shouldn't kill it coz Great Whites are endangered and us Humans are deffinately not!!! ... but you know the public will be in uproar for vengeance!
Sharks have had a bad rap since jaws, such a pity they are such awesome animals.

If we lost sharks our fish population would dissapear too, sharks naturally prey on the weak and old fish keeping their population stronger to swim some of their massive oceanic migrations you don't kull of the weak then it slows the whole shoal down then eventually they will all die!!!
So in other words who ever grabs their I&J out the fridge for a bit of fish and chips should thank sharks!!! haa haa..;)
 
Back
Top Bottom