World’s deadliest beach
‘Sharks will normally take a bite then spit you out.’ At the world’s deadliest beach, ‘people are actually being eaten. It’s very unusual’
Most people survive shark attacks, when the shark, realizing what it has grabbed is not its regular prey, lets go. But on one African beach, sharks have developed a taste for human flesh.
PORT ST. JOHNS, South Africa — At first glance, there is nothing unusual about the beach on South Africa’s Indian Ocean coast.
Fringed by banana trees, its sand pocked- marked by passing cattle, its azure waters have just the right amount of waves to entice surfers but not enough to intimidate swimmers.
Last week, however, all visitors were barred from entering the water at Second Beach in Port St. Johns.
On Sunday, Lungisani Msungubana, 25, died while swimming with a group of friends in shallow water. He had sustained “multiple traumatic lacerations to his torso, arms and legs.”
He had become the sixth victim in just five years of the sharks that have made this popular seaside spot the most dangerous beach in the world for such attacks.
In South Africa, one in five attacks by sharks ends in the death but every single attack at Second Beach has proved fatal. Zambezi or bull sharks, known as the “pit bulls of the ocean” for their ferocity, have been blamed for most of the incidents.
Until recently, all the victims had been surfers and lifeguards who swam out to sea, but Msungubana was just waistdeep in the water when he was taken.
Experts from the nearby KwaZulu Natal Sharks Board have been brought in to try to put a stop to the problem and the town authorities have closed the beach to swimmers until the team can find some answers.
But in a recent interview with The Daily Telegraph, Geremy Cliff, who is leading the study, was not optimistic.
“We are also looking for clues as to what might have changed in terms of human behaviour and environmental factors, but I don’t know that we are ever going to be able to successfully explain what is happening,” he said. “Often it’s just a case of keeping your fingers crossed and hoping the problem goes away.”
Msungubana was killed exactly a year to the day of the previous fatal attack.
Zama Ndamase, 16, was dragged underwater as he waited for a wave one morning with his brother, Avuyile. The boys were members of the provincial surfing team and had been notching up a steady stream of victories.
Michael Gatcke, who runs a guest house above the beach was on his veranda, talking to some new arrivals when he heard the screams.
He taught Zama and Avuyile at the local surf school before it closed following three fatal attacks in 2009.
“A lot of times the guys from the surf school used to pull each other off their surfboards and try to dunk each other under,” he said.
“That’s initially what I thought was happening. I saw Avuyile paddling away and Zama roll off his board. He got back on and tried to get onto a wave. That’s when I saw the water behind him was all red.”
By the time his mother Nodumo reached the beach, he was already dead, having lost too much blood.
To this day, Avuyile, 17, struggles to talk about what happened to his brother. “We were waiting for a wave and then it just happened, in a split second, he was gone,” he said.
Every guest house owner, surfer and restaurant manager in town has a different theory for what caused the attacks.
One is that local sangomas, or witch doctors, who sacrifice animals on the beach and throw their entrails into the sea, are drawing in the sharks.
Some believe that pollution from the Umzimvubu River which meets the sea at Port St. Johns is attracting the predators. Others think the rotting carcass of a whale shark, which was buried beneath the beach 10 years ago, could be to blame for the sharks’ aggression.
Rod Hastier, a Port St. Johns resident who worked with the Natal Sharks Board for 16 years, said Zambezi sharks, which can grow to 13 feet ( four metres) long and live in fresh or salt water, were notoriously pugnacious. “Great Whites are pussycats in comparison,” he added.
But he said that the way sharks were attacking in Port St. Johns was different. Beachgoers have reported swimming with Zambezis at the beach as little as six years ago without problems. “Sharks will normally take a bite then spit you out,” he said. “Here, people are actually being eaten. In one case, they just found a foot. It’s very unusual.”
When The Daily Telegraph visited Second Beach before Christmas there was little indication of the danger lurking metres away, with safety information boards warning more about the strong currents than any risk from sharks. It remained the duty of lifeguards to warn potential bathers of the risk.
With no proper equipment such as boats or jet skis, they have to go into the sea each time someone is attacked, and did so to bring back Msungubana’s body last week.
But even after his death, people were reportedly still trying to swim when lifeguards’ backs were turned.
Hastier said the only solution was for the local authorities to permanently close the beach to swimmers and instead, promote the area as a shark- spotting site. “There’s nothing that can be done in terms of protection so it’s better to say people shouldn’t go swimming during the summer months when sharks are here,” he said.
“From a marketing point of view, they just need to leave swimming out of it and promote what else we have to offer instead.”