Shark Tourism

Shark diving in S.A is a huge International tourist attraction and the flagship species are the white shark, tiger shark, bull shark, the spotted ragged toothed shark and a whole host of varied flat sharks. Many visitors are well travelled to dive with sharks and are knowledgeable and passionate about sharks.

The white shark cage diving industry is now just a money making racket by the majority of the operators, the tourists pay large sums of money and are crammed onto a boat, to watch white sharks being fed, and breaking the S. A. law against such activity in a MPA.

In S. A. feeding fish and sharks is against the law, but baiting is permitted. As there is no compliance enforced the feeding of the whites in the cage diving industry and the tiger shark baited dives in the Aliwal Shoal MPA continue, as MCM / KwaZulu Wildlife seem incapable of ensuring compliance in their respective MPAs’

The majority of the public believe in the ‘Jaws myth’ and this fear of sharks’ is egged on by the unknown. Consequently the Municipality Managers and Beach managers support the NSB, whose culling programme of large sharks’ they feel is justified, as they are protecting the beach Tourist Industry.

The reality is that when a shark bites a human there is a cause, as Humans are not part of the shark’s food chain. This fact was well accentuated with the Union Whaling Factory on the Bluff Point, as was in fact a giant shark feeding station and the cause of “Shark attack”. In those times on the South Pier there was a fishing competition called the “1000 Pounder”. Fishermen would catch up to 3-tons in a day on the South Pier. Union Whaling was shut down in 1976 and the Shark’s Measure Board and NSB culled out all the resident sharks with a system of staggered shark nets used by Australia. Those large sharks are no longer seen or caught.

In 1986 Dr. Leonard Compagno and team assessed the risk of “Shark attack’ off the KZN coast and their conclusion was there was none and the shark nets should be removed.

The process should have been gradual and the public educated, that there was no risk provided the rules of the Sea were applied. Baiting and chumming activities kept away by 3-kms from the shore, fishermen not to degut on the backline before beaching. Not to swim late afternoons, early mornings and at night as these are shark feeding times. Not to swim in estuaries during the rainy season as there turbidity of the water could lead to an accident. Not swim with your dog, as it rapid swimming movement simulates stress. These are some basics for humans to respect the Ocean’s Regulators, in their environment. In fact 30% of the shark nets were removed over time from under utilized recreational beaches without any Public furore or drama.

DEAT have already declared no more shark nets will be installed. However the NSB culling of large sharks has been indiscriminate and killing other species consequently threatened the Natal Indian Ocean Dolphin and the rare coastal humpback dolphin, turtles, whale sharks and flat sharks.

The dilemma of how to cull large sharks without the drama and horror story of by-catch kills, prompted the NSB once again to borrow from Australia, the system using baited hooks suspended from an anchored buoy and referred to as a drum line. The drum lines have subsequently created their own horror story.

The Tiger shark encounters on Aliwal Shoal has a terrific international Tourist following and the International Tourists are furious at the NSB culling Tiger Sharks in the Aliwal Shoal MPA, 12 tiger sharks’ alone were killed in one month. This loss of tiger sharks’ had a direct effect, as the regular viewing of tiger sharks and changed to spasmodic.

What is totally unacceptable is to have the NSB culling operation, using a combination of shark nets and drum lines, in a MPA and against MPA regulations

A further threat to the Tiger harks is now by fishermen who see how successful the drum lines are in catching sharks, so they have copied, using baited hooks suspended below an anchored drum. No boat anchoring is allowed in the Aliwal Shoal MPA to stop bottom fishing. The fishermen do this at night and remove the drums a baited catch before the morning.

Their catch rate has been improved by the tiger shark operators in the Aliwal Shoal MPA that are FEEDING sharks with their baited drums, this conditions sharks to the baited drums and the sharks’ see them as feeding stations and consequently easily caught by fishermen and lured in at night to the shore and killed by the drum lines.

By the time the shark is filleted, the public will be none the wiser that they are eating toxic meat as any shark over a meter long the mercury levels are too high for human consumption.
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Sharks’ are not dumb animals, chumming and baiting attracts sharks, the sharks soon learn there is no gain, as a result of the baited drum attraction. This does not support the photographer’s requirement so the operators feed in order for the sharks’ stay for the photographers to get their pictures.

There have been accidents when a shark assesses a diver and has resulted in many stitches from the ultimate assessment which is taste.

I have seen video's of a divers head and another diver his buttocks in a Tiger Shark's mouth, whilst it tastes - "Yuk human" and the tiger shark moves on as they have tasted and the human is not seen as prey .In each case the diver did not react to the shark tasting and they then had a unique experience and many stitches to prove it. Put fear with the taste that would have been an instinctive stimulus and the shark tasting the diver would have triggered they are prey.

The last “Shark attack” so called was on an Indian youth fishing in Durban Harbour, chest deep in the water, at 1h30 and was bitten by a bull shark. Night time is shark feeding time as they have the advantage by being able reuse or enhance available light 10 times more than a human eye. The fisherman so bitten was doing the wrong thing at the wrong time.

The International Tourists are very angry at the Tiger shark culling by the NSB and the killing of sharks by fishermen, in the Aliwal Shoal MPA. The tiger shark killing has severely impacted on the baited shark viewing industry.

The fishermen have overfished the inshore access for line fishing! The new sport now with a lot of fishermen self accolades is targeting flat sharks. Some are released, some are so stressed causing an electrolytic imbalance they die, others in their stressed condition on release are targeted as prey.

The WWF has no issue of harvesting wild life provided it is sustainable. The United Nations has a protocol against intentional killing and the fishermen who target flat sharks for self glory is its own horror story.

Since Industrial times 90% of all sharks have gone, the last 6-years in the Atlantic the long liners have reduced the shark population to a third, 89% of the hammer head have been harvested, the leather back turtle extinct as with the black necked albatross. Up to 200 million sharks are killed each year and it is predicted the demise of the Ocean’s regulator that in 9-years time there will not be enough sharks and the Oceans will die.

The NSB should stop culling sharks in a MPA, should a shark bite a human research the cause, educate the public and slowly remove all the nets and drum lines.

Do not underestimate the International Tourist anger at the current NSB culling and the S. A. Fishermen’s killing sharks and stressing flat sharks and call it sport.

Andrew Cobb.

4/01/09