Keep those sharks at bay
Removable net may be heavy to deploy, but it keeps bathers safe and people in work
IT HAS to be one of the most unique jobs in the world. Every day, going out and putting up a shark exclusion net before taking it down again at night.
Shark Spotters net crew’s Casey Bull says she enjoys her job because she knows she is keeping people safe from shark attacks.
“I have always wanted to spend every day of my life on the beach,” she says with a smile on Fish Hoek beach.
The shark exclusion net, first deployed in 2013, weighs around 500kg and is 350m in length and varies in depth from 1m to 6m.
Bull says she enjoys educating bathers about beach safety and is always willing to answer their questions about the net.
The project on Fish Hoek beach supports 10 employees from previously disadvantaged backgrounds.
The team includes a skipper and nine net crew members.
The net crew deploys the net at around 8am on a typical day.
Derek Bok, one of the crew, grabs hold of the end of the thick chain used to anchor the net on the shore and shakes it several times, creating a wave formation.
Then the team, geared up in their wetsuits, gets to work, systematically unpacking the net from the trailer.
The crew wades into the ocean, holding sections of the net.
With the help of the speedboat, they pull the net all the way across the bay.
The operation is physically challenging.
Hooks at intervals along the length of the net keep it bunched up against a rope running along the top while it is being deployed. This makes it easier to work with. Once it is in place, the crew unhook it so that it reaches the seabed.
As soon as the net is in place, bathers can be seen taking to the ocean.
After the deployment of the net, the team monitor it for the rest of the day to ensure that no marine animals become entangled in it.
At around 5pm a vehicle arrives with the empty trailer and the skipper and net crew begin the task of bunching up the net and then loading it back onto the trailer.
Prior to 2013, shark activity caused public concern, which prompted the Shark Spotters programme and the City of Cape Town to develop the shark exclusion net.
The low-maintenance, nonlethal net is the only one in the world designed to be deployed daily.
However, new technology is also being explored that will enhance the current method.
The Shark Spotters programme, along with the Institute for Communities and Wildlife in Africa at UCT and PatternLab SaRL, a Swiss research and development company specialising in computer-aided vision, aims to deploy a low-cost, computer vision-based shark detection algorithm that utilises a fixed camera at a high vantage point above the beach.
The success of this project will further increase the efficacy of shark spotters by mitigating the possibility of human error.