Whenever I am in Durban I try to visit the Natal Sharks Board. I have lost count of the number of times I have visited and I’m sure I’ll be back in the near future.
I am both fascinated and appalled by the work that the Sharks Board do. Fascinated, because of the extent of the knowledge and constant research conducted, and appalled because of the indiscriminate destruction the shark nets cause.
Late last year reports surfaced of tiger sharks killed in the shark nets near Rocky Bay. Any dead shark is a tragedy in my book and this was no exception. Indiscriminate by-catch is a concomitant of the nets, and dolphin, manta and turtles are frequent victims of this “protection”.
The Sharks Board practise transparency and publish their findings and “catch” statistics on their website. And I urge you to visit their site to find out more.
Each day, there is a “show” of an informative audio-visual and dissection of a shark which includes a lecture of shark biology and behaviour. On this day, the shark-to-be-dissected was a small blacktip, which I found “defrosting” on a stainless steel table in the public auditorium. Sharks that are to be dissected are sharks that have been removed from the nets and which could not be released because they are too damaged or are dead. The dead sharks are stored in freezers and either used for lecture purposes or for research.
This poor fellow ended up on the “lecture” table though and I took these photographs of him. It made me very sad to see him lying there being picked upon by flies, waiting for some tourists to see him dissected for their edification.
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- Blacktip shark, Cormac McCreesh
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- Blacktip shark on dissecting table, Cormac McCreesh
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- Blacktip shark claspers, Cormac McCreesh
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- Blacktip shark on table, Cormac McCreesh
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- Blacktip shark, Cormac McCreesh
The Sharks Board would argue otherwise but I cannot justify their methods of protecting our beaches and bathers from sharks. For me, if you want to swim in the sea then you must accept the risk in the same way you would accept the risk of walking alone in the Kruger park. You make up your own mind, but not before finding out a little more first.
Here are some photos I took underwater of the shark nets at Rocky Bay. You can see how easy it is for sharks and other animals to blunder into the nets.
Shark net, Cormac McCreesh
Shark nets, Cormac McCreesh
Shark nets, Cormac McCreesh
