Update on White Shark Activity for Residents and Visitors

With the start of the peak holiday season the City of Cape Town would like to provide residents and visitors with the most current information on White Shark activity. All beachgoers are reminded that we do have White Sharks occurring along our entire coastline with a distinct inshore coastal movement of the animals during the summer months.

The non-profit Shark Spotting Programme now has 20 full time staff and has contracted four lifesaving clubs to be operational at the following
locations:

• Muizenberg beach
• Fish Hoek and Clovelly beaches
• St James and Kalk Bay beaches
• Mnandi beach
• Monwabisi beach
• Blue Waters beach
• Strand beach (in front of the lifesaving club)
• Long beach Kommetjie
• The Hoek (Noordhoek)

Shark spotters will also be on duty at Glencairn beach from 11 December to 7 January 2007.

The City's Sport and Recreation Department has provided 30 shark attack emergency kits which have been distributed to key locations along the coast as well as to each of the shark spotting teams. In addition, in a broad based programme, the City's Sport and Recreation Department has provided emergency first-aid training in the use of the shark attack kits to all of the shark spotters as well as City staff to ensure that, if needed, emergency treatment is available at key locations. Finally, all the lifesaving clubs along the City's coasts have been provided with two personal electronic shark shields to be used by the lifesavers in carrying out their duties. The first set of shark shields were distributed to clubs along False Bay at the end of November and the final set of 11 shark shields are being distributed this week to the remaining clubs.

Regular sightings of White Sharks by spotters continue to be recorded. So far this summer since 1 September, Muizenberg has recorded 30 sightings (more than a 65% drop in sightings as recorded for the same period in 2005) and Fish Hoek 21 sightings (more than a 30% drop in sightings as recorded for the same period in 2005). The drop in inshore sightings this year is likely to be only a short term variation while long-term monitoring and continued research will shed light on what drives this inshore behaviour and movement of White Sharks and how it changes from year to year. St James beach has 15 recorded sightings since September while Blue Waters has reported two sightings and Strand one. Monwabisi and Mnandi are yet to record an inshore sighting this summer.

In the two months that shark spotters have been operating on a daily basis on the Atlantic coastline, only one sighting has been recorded at the Hoek and none have been recorded at Long Beach Kommetjie.

Although sightings have been down on last year's records, sharks are definitely still present in the inshore area as shown by the Collaborative Cape Town White Shark Research Projects successful tagging of nine White Sharks between Macassar and Strandfontein during October and November.

This brings the total number of White Sharks tagged in False Bay to 72 since the beginning of 2005. The Save Our Seas Foundation and Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism research boats tagged the sharks during surveys to count sharks swimming between Fish Hoek and Macassar.

Both male and female White Sharks between 1.8 and 3.5m were tagged with acoustic transmitters that transmit signals detected by the 35 acoustic receivers deployed in False Bay to provide information on residency and movement patterns within the bay. The successful tagging of a 1.8 m female White Shark is especially pleasing as this is the first white shark under 2m that has been tagged to date for the project. White Sharks are born between 1.2 and 1.7m in length so it's going to be especially exciting to monitor the movements of this juvenile shark within the bay if she decides to stay in the area. Through photo-identification a number of sharks swimming between Fish Hoek and Macassar have been added to the False Bay White Shark database, which will help estimate the total number of sharks found in the bay. Sharks were sighted between 50 to 2000m from shore; with most sightings behind the surf back line. In the next few weeks surveys and tracking will continue in the inshore areas of the bay.

People are warned to remain cautious and practise responsible and educated water use by following these guidelines to reduce the chance of an encounter with a white shark:

• Swim / surf / kayak in areas where shark spotters or life-savers are on duty
• Swim / surf / kayak in groups and avoid low light / bad water visibility conditions
• Familiarise yourself with the area and recent shark sightings by talking to local law enforcement, shark spotters or life-savers
• Avoid going beyond the back line
• Don't go in the water when there is fish / bird activity

People are encouraged to visit the Shark Spotters website www.sharkspotters.org.za for further information, weekly updates on shark sightings at the various beaches and to provide the shark spotter programme with any shark sightings of their own.

The first shark spotter employed at Fish Hoek beach, Saboe, has retired due to personal reasons. Saboe had an incredible knowledge of the ocean and was highly proficient at spotting not only sharks but any marine life that came into Fish Hoek Bay. Saboe personally recorded over 120 sightings of White Sharks in his two years as the Fish Hoek spotter.

The City of Cape Town would like to take this opportunity to thank Saboe for his incredible service and for keeping Fish Hoek beach safe for the last two years and wish him well. Saboe's shoes have been filled by his daughter, Amieni Wilson, who will now be on duty up on the mountain above Fish Hoek.

The shark sign is available on www.sharkspotters.org.za in print quality

The flags mean the following:

Green Flag: Shark Spotter on duty, visibility is good and no sharks are visible to the spotter
Black flag: Shark Spotter on duty, visibility is poor
Red Flag: Shark has been seen in the last two hours, is no longer visible to the spotter but swimmers are advised to be cautious
White Flag with black Shark: Shark visible and people are to leave the water, accompanied by a siren
No Flag: Spotters not on duty

The emergency numbers the public must call in the event of a shark attack are:
NSRI: 021 449 3500
Metro control room:021 937 0301

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Issued by:
Directorate: Communication And Marketing
City of Cape Town
Tel: 021 400 2201
Fax: 021 957 0023

Media queries:
Gregg Oelofse
City of Cape Town
Tel: 021 487 2239