Sharks!

There have been several shark encounters near Muizenberg in the past fortnight. Muizenberg beach is the place where we went whale spotting at the beginning of the month, the place where the hundred of so surfers were (Heikki took some photos).

One lifesaver lost a foot a couple of days back and two other young men had an encounter yesterday.

I would like to stress here, that sharks don’t tend to munch people up. They mistake humans for their prey, have a bite and let go. The 5-10 people who die per year from shark attacks do so because of blood loss. Things such as kites, chairs and toasters each kill a hundred times more people every year.

100 million sharks die each year, mostly because their fins are wanted as soup ingredients. Fishermen catch the sharks, chop up the fins and throw the live animal back into water. The sharks fall to the bottom of the sea where they face a slow, agonizing death.

There are more encounters now than before, as people use the water more than ever before. They can’t put up shark nets here. The species that’s found around Cape Town is the Great White, and the nets are not effective with this species. Also, nets would be an environmental disaster, as whales come to have their babies here.