Threats to Sharks & Shark Conservation

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Government Announces review of shark fishing industry.

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https://www.pressreader.com/south-afric ... 6717569237

Government announces review of shark fishing industry
Weekend Post (South Africa)23 May 2020Guy Rogers rogersg@theherald.co.za
The department of environment, forestry & fisheries has appointed a panel of experts to review the shark fishing sector.

The announcement follows months of pressure from the public over “flake and chips” demersal shark longline fishery, its alleged decimation of targeted small shark species and consequent effect on flagship white sharks and the tourism industry.

Also of public concern is the alleged involvement of one of the industry’s prominent members in illegal fishing.

The department’s spokesperson, Albi Modise, said on Thursday that the panel, appointed by minister Barbara Creecy, would review the management and conservation of sharks in SA waters.

“The nine-member panel comprises national and international experts,” Modise said.

“It will review SA’s national plan of action for the conservation and management of sharks over a threemonth period.

“The aim will be to determine whether the plan is effective and where improvements need to be made.

“It will recommend actions needed to properly manage and conserve all shark species along the SA coast, and guide their long-term sustainable use.”

The appointment of the panel had been done in response to a public outcry, Modise said.

“Concern has been voiced about shark populations along the coast and the change in the distribution of great white sharks and the resultant increase in conflict between fishers and tourism operators.”

SA’s shark plan of action was developed in line with the international plan of action for the conservation and management of sharks and first implemented in 2013.

The new review would be guided by the aims of the international plan, he said.

“These aims include ensuring that shark catches from direct and non-direct fisheries are sustainable and that unused incidental shark catches are minimised.

“The further aim is to improve species-specific catch and landing data and the monitoring of shark catches.

“Waste and discards from shark catches should also be minimised.

“This requires the retention of sharks from which fins are removed, and the full use of dead sharks.”

Another aim, Modise said, was to assess direct threats to shark populations and find ways to protect critical habitats.

Modise said the review would start in early next month.

Companies licensed in terms of SA’s demersal shark long line fishing sector export the flesh to fast food “flake and chip” shops in Australia where shark fishing is banned because of the environmental effect.


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Re: Government Announces review of shark fishing industry.

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Maybe SA should do like Australia O**


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Re: Government Announces review of shark fishing industry.

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Picture: JAKOB OWENS/UNSPLASH

How overfishing is threatening SA’s shark eco-tourism industry

BY MELISSA REITZ - 24TH MAY 2020 - BUSINESS LIVE

Experts say the government is ignoring science and dragging its feet in the face of a crisis.

According to scientists and marine conservationists, overfishing is threatening shark species along SA’s coastline. They say if bold steps are not taken to tighten demersal shark longlining (DSL) regulations, some species will disappear completely, ultimately leading to the collapse of the shark watching industry, an important revenue earner for SA tourism and marine conservation.

Scientific recommendations compiled by national fisheries scientists in 2011 highlighted that slot (size) limits were urgently needed to protect shark species, which are being unsustainably harvested. Yet, despite these recommendations being gazetted in 2018, they have still not been implemented.

Furthermore the department of environment, forestry & fisheries (DEFF), says a more recent assessment for soupfin and smoothhound sharks confirmed there is a “99% probability that soupfin is fished unsustainably” and for smoothhound sharks “the stock is fished at unsustainable levels”.

But with no catch or size limits enforced, DSL fishery continues to target soupfin and smoothhound sharks by their thousands for export to Australia’s “flake and chips” markets. Not only is this affecting the survival of these species, but it is also having a noticeable effect on great white sharks, who rely on small sharks as a vital food source.

World-renowned white shark expert Chris Fallows says: “Up to 35,000 of just one species are being caught by two or three boats along our coastline.”

Fallows confirms that white shark numbers have plummeted in False Bay since 2015 when the DSL boats began fishing the area in earnest. “You simply cannot overfish one species and not expect it to have a knock-on effect elsewhere.”

Shark activity in False Bay and Gansbaai attracts nearly 100,000 tourists annually. With an estimated contribution to GDP of R1bn, the loss of great whites could affect hundreds of livelihoods, as well as shark conservation efforts.

“Shark tourism has many added benefits for employment, conservation and community, and the whole tourism value chain from accommodation, restaurants, transport and more,” says Wilfred Chivell of Marine Dynamics in Gansbaai. “Furthermore, these eyes on the sea are critical to the understanding of marine species behaviour and influence conservation policies.”

In contrast, DSL fishery, made up of six boats, of which three are active, is estimated to generate R15m annually, employing about 250 people. These boats operate from Algoa to False Bay.

The department says the delay in actively regulating DSL fishing is due to a previous split mandate in departments. But it says changes are in the pipeline.

Conservationists say the delay is inexcusable. They say it is the department’s own scientists who identified the “inadequate regulatory reference to sharks” as one of the main hindrances and who claimed there was no progress “due to attrition of staff within DAFF, lack of assessments and scarcity of skilled resource managers”.

According to Sue Middleton, acting deputy director-general for fisheries management, quota and size limits, as well as mandatory observers, will be in place by the end of May.

But forestry, fisheries & environmental affairs minister Barbara Creecy also says a socio-economic impact assessment system (SEIAS) needs to be conducted before limitations can be set.

Marine biologists say there is not enough time for an impact assessment and immediate implementation of the scientific recommendations should first be rolled out.

Regarding quota allowances, the department says limitations are managed through a total allowable effort (TAE) system. “Shark fisheries are managed in terms of restriction on the amount of fishing effort that is allowed to be put in, rather than in terms of quotas that may be taken out.”

But scientists say without mandatory observers on the boats, a TAE system is ineffective fishery management, and, in some years, single vessels have exceeded the entire fishery quota.

“When you have data clearly showing that since 2017, six boats have caught more than double the scientifically recommended quota … capping the number of vessels is not enough,” says Fallows.

The department further states fishing permit renewals have been extended until December 2021, which is when the stock status and TAE will be considered.

“We cannot wait to end 2021 for permit renewals. By then the white sharks will be below the threshold to recover,” says environmental scientist at Algoa Bay Conservation Ronelle Friend.

In the meantime, eyewitnesses say the DSL vessels continue to flout fishing laws. One of the boats, White Rose, has been prosecuted for fishing in the De Hoop Marine Protected Area. Yet, despite a pending court case, it remains in operation.

Reports of catching and slaughtering protected white shark and hammerhead species have also been recorded.

The solution, say marine conservationists, lies in relocating the DSL permit holders to another sector such as the pelagic longline fishery. With each DSL boat owner possessing multiple permits, they say these boats could focus on less vulnerable fish species.

Original article: https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/natio ... -industry/


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Re: Great white sharks vanish from Cape Town and no one knows why

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Where are South Africa’s great white sharks?

BY HEATHER RICHARDSON ON 10 JUNE 2020

- White sharks have disappeared from False Bay and Gansbaai, two sites off South Africa where they have historically been commonly sighted.

- Scientists have a number of theories about this, including predation of sharks by orcas, and fishing activity that targets species that juvenile sharks feed on.

- Scientists say it’s important to look at the big picture — while sharks have gone from some areas, they’ve increased in others — but data covering
South Africa’s whole coastline is still patchy.

- The COVID-19 lockdown is also hampering data-gathering efforts, with scientists not yet permitted to go out to sea, potentially leading to a gap in the long-term data.


CAPE TOWN — South Africa’s great white shark population has been the subject of international scrutiny since 2017, when cage-diving operators reported a sudden, sharp decline in sightings around False Bay and Gansbaai.

From 2010 to 2016, white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) were sighted in False Bay an average of 205 times each year, according to conservation and research organization Shark Spotters. In 2018, the sharks were spotted just 50 times; and in 2019, nothing. In January 2020, the first white shark in 20 months was seen in False Bay.

“The reality is that we have way more theories than we have facts to support them at the moment,” says marine biologist Alison Kock, who currently works for South African National Parks. She has been researching white sharks in South Africa since 1998. “There are three or four possible reasons. Each one may be contributing in its own way.”

It’s unclear how many white sharks there are around South Africa — estimates have ranged from around 500 to 900. Sara Andreotti of Stellenbosch University studies the genetics of white sharks around the South African coast. Her research found the sharks to be a single population, moving from site to site and breeding with each other. In a study from 2009 to 2011, she estimated there were around 300 breeders in the population­ — but the minimum to avoid inbreeding, she says, is thought to be around 500. “So our population was in real trouble already,” she says.

But what explains the sudden disappearance of white sharks from False Bay and Gansbaai in 2017?

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Orcas off British Columbia. In 2017, five white shark carcasses washed up on the shores around South Africa’s Gansbaai: their livers had been removed, and teeth marks clearly pointed to orcas as the predators. Image by Jellybeanz via Flickr (CC BY-NC-2.0)

Orcas

The answer most white shark scientists point to is the presence of orcas in the area — two in particular. Port and Starboard, as they have been named, were first spotted in False Bay in 2015 (though orcas had become increasingly present since 2009). At this time, several carcasses of broadnose sevengill sharks (Notorynchus cepedianus) were found in the bay — and the predator appeared to be the orcas. These were the first records of orcas predating on sharks in South Africa.

Kock published a paper on “the first documentation of a novel feeding technique”: The killer whales were using force to break the shark’s pectoral girdle to enable them to bite out the liver, discarding the rest of the carcass.

Following the attacks, sevengill sharks vanished from the bay — one of the largest known aggregation sites for this species anywhere in the world — for up to a month.

Then, in 2017, five white shark carcasses washed up on the shores around Gansbaai. Like the sevengill sharks, only their livers had been removed. Teeth marks clearly pointed to orcas as the predators. Sharks’ livers are rich in fat and make up a third of their total weight, so it’s no surprise these incredibly intelligent predators target this nutritious organ.

Kock theorized that the disappearance of white sharks from False Bay and Gansbaai could be due to the presence of the orcas. In 2017, there was an increase of white shark sightings further along the coast, in Mossel Bay, where they may have relocated to evade the orcas.

Orca predation on white sharks has also been documented in California. Salvador Jorgensen showed that white sharks disappeared from an area when orcas were present; in 2009, 17 tagged white sharks suddenly vanished from the area around the Farallon Islands, which he linked to the presence of orcas in a 2019 paper. Jorgensen found that white sharks might disappear for up to year when orcas passed through their hunting grounds.

A common theme in the study of white sharks is uncertainty. Orcas have been observed with white sharks in the past; Andreotti says she recalls sampling white sharks in Gansbaai in 2012, while orcas were also in the bay. “I had almost 20 sharks around,” she says.

Kock says while there is evidence that the overnight disappearance of white sharks is related to orcas, it’s not clear-cut. “It doesn’t seem to be all orca pods that have the effect at this stage. So, sometimes we’ve got orca pods that come into an aggregation site, and there’s no change in white shark sightings.”

Until last year, Port and Starboard were the only orcas thought to be having an impact on the shark population off South Africa, says Kock. “Then at the end of last year, a totally different pod that didn’t have Port and Starboard in it came into Mossel Bay. There’s a video of one of the orcas [showing] an interest in one of the white sharks around a cage diving boat. And overnight, they went from having seven to 10 different white sharks to having nothing.”

Kock has been working on a paper led by marine biologist Alison Towner, which she hopes will be published later this year, revealing the extent of the orcas’ impact on the white shark population.

One theory is that the shark-eating orcas are part of a different ecotype, drawn to coastal waters from deeper, pelagic waters for a variety of reasons, including changing water temperatures due to climate change and overfishing.

White shark, Gansbaai: Ten years ago, there were an estimated 300 breeders in the white shark the population­ — the minimum to avoid inbreeding is thought to be around 500.

Fisheries

In media coverage of South Africa’s white sharks, demersal shark longline fisheries have been portrayed as a central culprit for their disappearance — but many white shark scientists are quick to point out the lack of data.

The longline fisheries target small sharks that are important prey for juvenile white sharks (mature sharks tend to eat marine mammals, such as seals). Scientists from South Africa’s Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries recommend catch control based on their data, but there are currently no limits in place and there are concerns about the impact on the ecosystem of overfishing sharks such as soupfins and common smooth-hounds. Additionally, the monitoring of South Africa’s coastlines is notoriously weak and some boats still fish in the no-take zones of marine protected areas.

One interesting finding by Ph.D. student Dylan Irion, supported by observations of some fishermen in and around Algoa Bay, is that as white shark sightings in the Western Cape have dropped off, sightings in the Eastern Cape have spiked — suggesting the sharks have relocated eastward, even though there is more demersal longline fishing of sharks there.

This weakens the argument that fishing of smaller sharks is denying juvenile sharks their prey — though overfishing in the open ocean could be a reason some orcas have moved from deeper waters to the coast.

Kock cautions against speculating before there is data to confirm these theories. “You have to be careful, because you can have unintended consequences … for people’s livelihoods. It’s really important, particularly for people in the decision-making sphere, to have evidence-based information, so that they can make the right decision. And at the moment, in terms of the white sharks disappearing, that needs a lot more work.”

Andreotti says she believes the fisheries should be more strictly regulated in any case, as sustainable fishing will have positive effects for people, sharks and the whole ecosystem in the long run. “They’re dealing with the livelihood of people,” she says. “I respect that. But I would appreciate it if they could try and see … the long-term goal.”

Shark nets and drumlines (baited hooks specifically targeting sharks) pose additional risks to white sharks along the South African coastline. Although the species has been protected in South Africa since 1991, the province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) uses baited hooks to cull white sharks as a method of preventing them swimming close to the shore. Between 2013 and 2017, an average of nearly 17 white sharks died on KZN’s drumlines each year, as well as scores of other marine animals: turtles, dolphins, and other shark species.

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There are currently no limits in place to prevent the overfishing of sharks. Image courtesy Marine Dynamics/Dyer Island Trust

Uncertainties and COVID-19

Kock emphasizes the importance of taking a wider view. “If you talk to people in the Western Cape … the shark spotters aren’t seeing [the white sharks], the surfers aren’t seeing them, the fishermen aren’t seeing them, the cage diving operators aren’t seeing them, our science shows that we’re not seeing them. But if you talk to fishermen in Algoa Bay and the Eastern Cape, they’ll tell you the opposite — [they’ve] never seen so many white sharks,” she says. “When people focus on just one aggregation area, they’re missing the bigger picture.”

Irion is currently using available data sets to look at the whole South African coastline. The information is relatively new; white sharks live an estimated 70 years, but the earliest data only starts from the early 1990s, recorded by Gansbaai cage-diving operators; in False Bay, recorded observations began in 1996. In addition, white sharks, especially the larger individuals, spend so much time far offshore — and satellite tags are extremely expensive — that there is a great deal of movement and behavior that scientists never see.

“We always concentrate on the things that we do know because obviously, they’re the facts that we have at hand,” Kock says, “but I think it’s equally important to realise [what we don’t know] … so much could be happening that we’re just not aware of.”

COVID-19 means there will be a gap in the data. Towner, who works for Dyer Island Conservation Trust in Gansbaai and alongside a local cage-diving operator, says the blue NGOs engaged in white shark research in South Africa are “heavily reliant” on international tourism, partly for the funding, but also with the cage-diving boats affording continuous monitoring of the sharks. Towner says the emergence of bronze whaler sharks in Gansbaai saved the industry when the white sharks dropped off in 2017.

“We’ve got the largest database,” Towner says. “It’s been 15 years and still going, with no seasonal interruptions in the data. So, we notice if something’s wrong very quickly.”

But with South Africa on a strict lockdown, tourism — even domestic — has ground to a standstill and, at the time of writing, researchers aren’t allowed out to sea.

Perhaps what has captivated people so much about the white shark population in South Africa is all these unknowns and how an array of possible factors — the orcas, a decline of prey species, climate change, culling — may be impacting these elusive apex predators. What is clear is that without data, we cannot draw any firm conclusions.

Kock laughs when asked about the expected publication date of the paper on the orca impacts she’s been working on with Towner, which is in the process of being submitted, after which it will undergo peer review.

“The slowness of science is frustrating for everyone — but it is slow for a reason,” she says. “It has to be verified.”


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Re: Great white sharks vanish from Cape Town and no one knows why

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Jaws of Life: Saving our amazing sharks

By Natalie dos Santos for Roving Reporters• 17 July 2020

Are South Africans warming to sharks? It would seem so after some heartening recent encounters in the winter seas — even as fears remain for the future of these apex predators.

It is an exciting time of year in South Africa’s seas. Upwellings of cold, nutrient- and plankton-rich waters off the West Coast in winter trigger the annual sardine run, which sees huge, oil slick-like shoals of sardines (Sardinops sagax) travelling along the eastern coast. Trailing them are frenzied predators such as common dolphins, gannets, cormorants and sharks.

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A shoal of sardines off Greenpoint, Clansthal on KwaZulu-Natal’s South Coast. (Photo: Natalie dos Santos)

For freedivers like me, it’s a chance to jump into the water to view what David Attenborough described on television as “The Greatest Shoal on Earth”.

Gannets turn into missiles as they dive into the water and the silver, boiling shoal morphs into tunnels as sharks charge through them at full speed.

Humans also join the frenzy from the beach. Sardine seine netters travel up and down the KwaZulu-Natal coast in bakkies full of plastic crates. If you follow one, you are bound to end up in the action.

As the shoals are pushed into shallow waters by spinner (Carcharhinus brevipinna), dusky (Carcharhinus obscurus), blacktip (Carcharhinus limbatus) and bronze whaler (Carcharhinus brachyurus) sharks, huge seine nets are dropped around them, dragging hundreds of sardines on to the beach where they are scooped into crates.

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Seine netters scooping their catch. (Photo: Andy Coetzee)

“It has been interesting how many spinners and blacktips have been with the sardines this year,” said Dr Ryan Daly, top marine predator researcher at the Oceanographic Research Institute.

Daly said this year’s sardine run has been one of the largest and most consistent on record.

Unfortunately, sharks that chase the sardines often end up in the seine nets too, where it can end badly for them.

Andy Coetzee, a nature conservationist and avid freediver, reckons fishermen frequently reach for their knives. And once they have the shark out the net or off the end of their lines, cut out its cartilaginous jaws. Dried and mounted, these jaws end up hung on walls, as trophies. The rest of the carcass is left on the beach.

And because sharks are often associated with fear and attacks, crowds can be delighted when these incredibly important animals are caught and killed.

Estimates vary on the number of sharks killed globally every year, with figures ranging from 100 million sharks to 273 million. The shark fin trade is believed to be a major contributor to the slaughter.

In False Bay in Western Cape, an unprecedented complete absence of white shark sightings has been noted, according to Dylan Irion, project leader of what has been dubbed “The great South African white shark count”.

This has raised fears of a local extinction. But, as Irion explained, much painstaking work, bringing together photo-ID datasets and information collected from acoustic receivers, must be done before scientists can come up with reliable numbers.

Good news

Meanwhile, there is good news to share from elsewhere in the country.

The public’s response to entangled sharks during this year’s sardine run has been amazing.

At the start of the sardine run, a shark release in Ramsgate, filmed by Faeez Mamdoo, made local news. Once the shark is pulled out of the seine net by fishermen and bystanders, it rolls around in the shorebreak while members of the crowd scream in fear. But when it swims away freely the whole crowd cheers in celebration.

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About two weeks later, on Monday 15 June, a female bull shark (Carcharhinus leucas) was caught in a seine net at Rocky Bay.

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A female bull shark stuck in a seine net at Rocky Bay. (Photo: Mia Morison)

Gareth Liesegang of Amith’s seine netting crew immediately cut the net to free the shark. The rest of the crew and bystanders then worked together to pull the shark out of the net and return her to the ocean.

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The crew from Amith’s seine netters and bystander, Emil Pirzenthal, return a shark to the ocean. (Photo: Jessica Escobar-Porras)

“It was amazing to see everybody getting involved and cheering as the shark was set free,” said Jessica Escobar-Porras, a shark scientist based at the Aliwal Shoal Marine Protected Area. “It is a great change in people’s and netter’s attitude towards sharks.”

In their house

Just a few days after releasing the bull shark at Rocky Bay, Coetzee filmed another shark being rescued from a seine net at Pennington beach by two fishermen, Keagan Murgatroyd and Arrin Walton.

According to Walton, the fisherman seen on video hauling the shark out of the net by its tail caught three sharks in their net that eventful morning. Walton managed to release two by lifting the wing of the net, but one shark was trapped in the centre of the net, where sardines are channelled.

From the shore, Walton immediately alerted Murgatroyd about the shark and that became the priority.

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A still from the video that shows Arrin Walton and Keagan Murgatroyd rescuing a shark trapped in a seine net among sardines. (Photo: Andy Coetzee)

“Leaving the shark on the beach didn’t even cross our minds,” said Walton. “When we are in the water, we are in their house. I wouldn’t want anyone coming into my house and throwing me out, and I’m pretty sure the shark wouldn’t either.”

Walton has spent much of his life in the ocean — surfing, diving and fishing with sharks — and has never felt threatened by them.

“It has been fantastic to see the change of attitude and behaviour of the general public towards sharks,” said Coetzee, who filmed the release.

Having previously witnessed netted sharks killed and left on the beach, Coetzee was grateful the public was now making a concerted effort to return sharks safely to the water.

Changing narratives

On 23 June, 14-year-old Zachary Berman captured drone footage of a safe encounter between a white (Carcharodon carcharias) shark (as great whites are also known) and paddlers in Plettenberg Bay. In the video, the naturally curious shark investigates the surfers and kayaker, who quickly but calmly exit the water when they spot the creature.

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Drone footage shows a white shark swimming among surfers in Plettenberg Bay. (Photo: Zachary Berman)

Caitlin Judge was one of the surfers in the water that day. In a Facebook post that went viral, Judge shared her thoughts on the way the media reported the interaction.

“He (the shark) cruised on past me, very relaxed. This isn’t abnormal here. Plett is a great white hotspot,” Judge shared.

According to the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI), a surge in shark activity on the West Coast is normal at this time of year as sharks target seals and fish close to the shore.

“However, the media depictions of this interaction paint a different picture,” said Judge.

It was not long before Berman’s drone footage went viral and numerous articles reported “Terrifying drone footage” of the white shark that was “perilously close” to surfers.

Judge was disappointed that danger and fear were still the main aspects of a popular narrative for the species. “This could have been a great opportunity to show a very calm interaction, which is much more the norm than any attack,” she said.

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A light-hearted response to negative media depictions of white sharks that was shared widely. (Illustration: Caitlin Judge)

The Facebook post was shared nearly 500 times, with many people agreeing that perceptions about sharks should change.

Berman, 14, who filmed the encounter, urged surfers and swimmers to be careful, but pointed out that the footage shows the calmness and beauty of the remarkable animals.

Less than 24 hours after capturing the shark encounter, Berman returned to the same location and captured another safe encounter between sharks and surfers.

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-cont ... 68x432.png
Drone footage showing another white shark in Plettenberg Bay. (Photo: Zachary Berman)

Project leader of Cape Town’s Shark Spotters Programme, Sarah Waries, told the NSRI, “It is important for people to remember that white sharks are naturally inquisitive apex predators and, though shark bites are rare, water users must understand the inherent risk associated with sharing the ocean with these animals and change their behaviour accordingly to avoid encountering sharks.”

Shark attack

While many people still fear sharks, it is wonderful to see how perceptions about them are changing all over the world. This new attitude is thanks to campaigns like Shark Attack, which tackles misconceptions and raises awareness of the importance of sharks and the need to protect them.

The campaign celebrated Shark Awareness Day on 14 July, sharing that South Africa was one of the top three global hotspots for shark and ray diversity. It is home to 204 different species, of which 69 are endemic to the country.

South Africans should be proud of this. We are privileged to have sharks in our waters, where they keep our ocean ecosystems healthy and balanced. In so doing they ensure the ocean has enough food and oxygen to provide for us. It means we can go to it again and again — for our livelihoods and wellbeing.

During this year’s sardine run, nothing has made me prouder than witnessing fellow South Africans protecting our sharks. I hope we continue to do our bit by keeping sharks in the ocean where they belong and standing up for them when a tired old story needs to be changed. DM

This story was produced for Daily Maverick by www.rovingreporters.com.

Marine biologist Natalie dos Santos is currently undergoing training as an Ocean Watch correspondent for Roving Reporters. She is also enrolled on the WILDOCEANS Ocean Stewards programme and is currently researching loggerhead turtles through the University of KwaZulu-Natal.


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Re: Threats to Sharks & Shark Conservation

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Murky Waters: Inside Congo’s Shark Trade (Video)

By Chris Clark and Shaun Swingler for TRAFFIC• 19 August 2020

Artisanal shark fishing by migrant fishers using “Popo” boats (large motorised boats) has been an important fishery in the coastal port of Pointe-Noire since the early 1980s, driven by extensive demand from East and Southeast Asia for fins. TRAFFIC has released a detailed report and a documentary about the trade in shark meat and fins in the Republic of Congo. It explores the threats of over-exploitation and illegal fishing and the local livelihoods put at risk by illegal commercial fishing by Chinese trawlers. The story is told from a rare perspective with access to shark fishers and traders. The filmmakers, Chris Clark and Shaun Swingler, are both from Cape Town.

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TRAFFIC is a non-government global conservation and sustainable development organisation


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Re: Threats to Sharks & Shark Conservation

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Are we starving great whites to death?

By Don Pinnock• 19 December 2020

Image

Ever since the film ‘Jaws’, with its creepy music, sharks have had bad press as nightmarish super-predators. But sharks are important for the health of the sea. And we’re wiping them out.

Sharks are declining worldwide and great whites have all but vanished from cage dives in southwestern Cape waters. A High Level Panel (HLP) appointed by Environment Minister Barbera Creecy to develop a shark management plan says whites left because orcas chased them and not because we target sharks like smoothhound and soupfin, a large part of their diet.

But here’s what scientists are asking: if it’s just about marauding orcas, why did whites not return to local bays when the predators moved off? Why did orcas not permanently displace sevengill and bronze whaler sharks which they were also seen hunting?

The Save our Sharks coalition and shark scientists insist the panel has missed the point. Smaller sharks, they say, are great whites’ primary food for much of their life cycle and we’re fishing them out of existence.

Permitting the killing of endangered soupfins and smoothhounds, says Dr Enrico Gennari of Oceans Research Institute, “is like DEFF [Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries] allowing hunters to go in the Kruger to … kill 100 black rhinos in a single trip”. Smoothhound are listed as endangered and soupfins critically so.

“If the Environment Department was serious about shark conservation,” says Save our Sharks, “what’s needed is to stop targeted fishing for sharks by the shark longline fishery. A few commercial shark boats are wiping out a billion-rand shark tourism industry and affecting the balance of entire marine ecosystems.”

Stellenbosch University marine biologist Dr Sara Andreotti is most concerned by the panel’s assumption about why white sharks moved away from False Bay and Gansbaai.

“Great whites’ numbers likely plummeted because of diminished food resources, paired with decades of poaching, bycatch and KwaZulu shark board legal shark cull,” she says. “Making their feeding grounds once again rich in food resources by reducing our impact on other smaller sharks could be a step in the right direction to give this species a chance of recovery. The HLP based its findings on preliminary, not published nor peer-reviewed research.”

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A great white shark off the South African coast. (Photo: www.sharksafesolution.com)

There’s no doubt smaller sharks are being hammered. Shark scientist Dr Charlene Da Silva of the DEFF showed South Africa’s soupfin shark stock had collapsed due to overfishing and was likely to be extinct in South Africa within 20 to 30 years.

Between 1991 and 2016, smoothhounds in SA waters declined by 43%. Over the next three generations the decline was predicted to be 63%. For soupfins the percentages are 51% and 85%. Great whites all but disappeared in False Bay and Gansbaai, former epicentres of shark cage diving.

“If soupfins are listed as critically endangered globally by the IUCN Red List,” says Save our Sharks, “why did this panel not find it alarming that this species remains one of the two main, permitted, target species of shark fisheries in South Africa? When in doubt, use the precautionary principle.”

The panel did express concern over soupfin and smoohhounds, noting the size (slot) limits were reduced in March 2020, and “the catch has to be reduced by an order of magnitude across all fleets to achieve a turnaround in the trajectory.” However, the limits have yet to be implemented for longlining.

It said sharks above or below the new limits had to be released, on-board observers needed to be taken on trips and sharks must land with heads and fins intact. But it found no evidence that these smaller sharks were a significant part of the great white diet.

This argument has a backstory. In 2013, the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries drew up a National Plan of Action (NPOA) for shark conservation and management. It was a sobering assessment and contained warnings of a looming crisis for a number of shark species. In May 2020, Creecy appointed the High Level Panel to review the action plan. After months of deliberation, its report came out in October with a road map for action.

Save our Sharks specialists say it’s full of contradictions, cherrypicked references and biased opinion from government-appointed scientists and managers.

The 2013 NPOA report had focused primarily on smoothhounds, soupfins and great whites. Between 2016 and 2019, about 90,000 smoothhounds were killed in our coastal waters by longliners, way higher than recommended by DEFF’s scientists. Most were fished by two demersal shark longlining (DSL) boats named White Rose and Mary Anne. (White Rose owners will appear in court in February for fishing in a marine protected area.)

The shark decline is not surprising. DSL permit holders operate without catch limits, with no seasonal closure and no buffer zones around marine protected areas. The 2013 NPOA noted that there were no observers on most boats and so no monitoring of catches, no mandatory reporting and observers often don’t know one shark from the next.

Landed catches are not weighed, by-catches cannot be quantified. There are huge information gaps about shark lifestyle and history as well as unknown ecosystem effects of removing such predators.

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SOUTH AFRICA – February 2011: A shiver of sharks at Shark Park in Scottburgh. Feature text available. (Photo by Gallo Images / GO! / Roger Horrocks)

This is what the High Level Panel was tasked to consider, and come up with a plan. It noted stakeholder concerns regarding the disappearance of white sharks from several aggregation sites, declines in abundance of demersals, a perceived lack of habitat protection and spatial management for sharks, conflicts among shark tourism and fishing industries, and concerns related to the shark fisheries. But the panel dialled back, saying the NPOA proposals were too ambitious in extent and timeframes.

It saw its brief as limited to assessing threats to shark populations, ensuring catches were sustainable, evaluating vulnerability of certain species, minimising by-catches and discards and improving data collection.

It noted a decline of white sharks from tourism hotspots, but said this was recent orca predation and dismissed it, without supporting evidence, or other possible causes, including human predation of their food supply by commercial fishing.

It said commercial shark fisheries and shark ecotourism were important but admitted they were largely incompatible – one industry killing sharks while another values them alive. Shark habitats needed to be conserved and human use managed, specifically with regard to smoothhound and soupfins. But, puzzlingly, it refused to recommend closure of these massively overfished stocks.

Save our Sharks said the panel had concerned itself with “fishery resources” and income rather than conservation of sharks or income from shark tourism. This view was consistent with the DEFF’s view of wildlife “seen as nothing more than an exploitable commodity for harvesting”. With this bias, having orcas being the problem of disappearing great whites and not overfishing supported their thinking.

In False Bay, white shark numbers began to gradually decline and then disappear. It has been two years since these sharks have been observed at Seal Island in False Bay and similarly in Gansbaai.

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A lucky snapshot of what used to be – flying sharks at Seal Island. Picture: Leigh de Necker

Shark specialist Chris Fallows says the population of great whites in SA was decreasing as far back as 2012, long before the presence of the orcas Port and Starboard.

Save our Sharks has called on the DEFF to reallocate the licences of the six registered DSL fishing boats and integrate them into other less damaging fisheries with no job losses. DM168


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Image
Great White Shark, Carcharodon carcharias, near the water surface, six nautical miles from the coast of Gansbaai, quite close to Dyer Island and Geyser Rock, The surface hunter often finds his prey on the water surface. The super-robber great white shark with its size and strength and fearsome jaws is a permanent danger to the South African fur seals around the Island, The great white shark belongs to the family of mako sharks and has very large gill slits and long pectoral fins. (Photo by: Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Why great white sharks are disappearing from South Africa’s coastline

BY SHEREE BEGA - 19TH JANUARY 2021 - MAIL AND GUARDIAN

Eleven years ago, out in the cool, coastal waters of Gansbaai on the Western Cape’s Atlantic seaboard, Dr Sara Andreotti was awed by how many great white sharks she would encounter in the white shark capital of the world: 15 a day on average.

The Stellenbosch University marine biologist remembers how her research partner, conservationist “Sharkman” Mike Rutzen, told her how he had seen as many as 40 white sharks around the Dyer Island nature reserve near the small fishing town in previous years.

Now, other than a few sporadic sightings, white sharks have vanished from Gansbaai and False Bay, both hotspots for the iconic, mysterious species and lucrative shark ecotourism.

“My research partner [marine biologist]Mary Rowlinson, is happy when she sees two or three great whites in Gansbaai,” Andreotti says. “It’s very sad.”

According to shark specialist and cage-dive operator Chris Fallows, the same disquiet exists in False Bay, about 100km away.

“We haven’t seen a great white shark at Seal Island for the last two years — we used to see about 200 different animals every season. The great whites are completely missing,” he says.

The apex predators, which have survived for 400-million years, are in deep trouble.

“We’re seeing the extinction of [great]white sharks along our coastline, and people are not even blinking an eye, but it’s like tigers, elephants or rhinos disappearing off this planet.”

Why have great whites vanished?

There are two prominent theories. One is the recent appearance of a pod of orcas, or killer whales, in Gansbaai and False Bay, which specialises in hunting large, coastal sharks like white sharks. This has scared off the great whites.

The other is the decline of white shark food from intensified fishing of small shark species, such as smooth-hound and soupfin sharks. The local shark demersal longline fishery, which sets kilometres of baited hooks on the seafloor, exports smooth hounds to Australia, where they are sold at fish-and-chip eateries as “flake”. These vessels have been caught fishing inside marine protected areas.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies smooth hounds as endangered and soupfins as critically endangered. The department of environment, forestry and fisheries has admitted both species are overfished.

Panel of experts

In May, mounting public concern about shark populations and the ensuing conflict between fishers and tourism operators prompted Environment Minister Barbara Creecy to set up an expert panel to formally review the country’s national plan of action for the conservation and management of sharks.

Its report found there is “some evidence for a causative link between the appearances of a pod of orcas that had specialised on preying on white sharks”, spurring their shift from west to east.

Since 2015, this killer whale pair, dubbed Port and Starboard, has been recorded 41 times between False Bay and Gansbaai, preying on sevengill sharks, white sharks and bronze whaler sharks.

“In 2017 the same pair were suspected of killing at least five large white sharks in Gansbaai. The increased presence of these shark-specialist killer whales may explain why white sharks have remained absent in False Bay and Gansbaai, but present in Mossel Bay, Plettenberg Bay and Algoa Bay,” the report stated.

It cited a 2019 scientific paper showing how white sharks disappeared from an area in the Farallon Islands, California, for up to a year when orcas passed through their hunting grounds.

Shark ecotourism ‘laid to the sword’

Orcas are unlikely to be the main culprit, Andreotti says.

“The feeling I’ve got from the report is that they’ve been trying to find an excuse for not seeing white sharks that will not necessarily prompt action from fisheries. So it’s not the humans’ fault; it’s not the fisheries fault: ‘We’re doing everything right, and nature just happened to chase the white sharks away from our coast.’

“Some orcas could chase some white sharks out of an area for a short period. But saying two orcas will make the entire population disappear overnight, based on five sharks that in a very short period of time were found in Gansbaai, is a hell of a stretch.”

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Call of the sea: Marine biologist Dr Sara Andreotti says sharks must be managed as a sustainable resource for our blue economy. Photo: Stefan Els/Matie Media

In 2016, the results of Andreotti’s seven-year study revealed only 353 to 522 white sharks are roaming the country’s coastline, comprising one single population with low genetic diversity.

Several local shark scientists disagreed with Andreotti and her team’s “pessimistic” prediction for white sharks. They wrote a rebuttal in the same journal in which her findings were published, stating, “due to the complex stock structure of white sharks and the model assumptions made by Andreotti et al, the conclusions drawn cannot be supported by their methods and data”.

Andreotti says more analysis was conducted, confirming the initial findings. The panel ignored her findings, she says.

“Our research in 2012 showed how white sharks have been in a poor state for years because of depleted food resources, fishing by-catch, poaching and legal shark nets and drum lines in KwaZulu-Natal, you name it … We’ve been affecting this population for decades, and now we see the result of poor management,” Andreotti says.

Fallows concurs. “We’ve had 43 different interactions with orcas and white sharks at False Bay and Seal Island and never noticed any difference in the white sharks’ behaviour and a decline in numbers. I’m not disagreeing with the fact that those two orcas probably did kill a couple of white sharks, but in no instance in nature does one apex predator completely displace another from pretty much an entire coastline just by their presence.”

He says the government hasn’t been prepared to admit to the incredible damage the demersal shark longline fishery is doing.

“One of the world’s great coastlines and the greatest example of shark ecotourism is being laid to the sword by a fishery that contributes less than 1.5% of what ecotourism contributes, which is about R1-billion,” Fallow says.

Mossel Bay marine biologist Dr Enrico Gennari adds there is no evidence to show an eastward shift of white sharks from the Western Cape as the panel indicated.

‘No evidence fishing to blame’

There is no scientific evidence indicating demersal sharks, such as soupfin and smooth-hound sharks, comprise a significant portion of white sharks’ diet, the panel’s report states, describing how they feed on 40 different species. “White sharks have not disappeared from Mossel Bay, Plettenberg Bay and Algoa Bay, even though catches of demersal sharks, specifically smooth hounds, by this fishery has been higher.”

The decline in soupfin shark stock precedes the development of the demersal shark long fishery by 70 years.

But for Fallows, this fishery is “like allowing a hunter to start a biltong factory with wild dogs and cheetah in the Kruger National Park”.

Gennari says, despite the government’s revelations that soupfin sharks will be commercially extinct by 2055, “Nobody on the panel said maybe it would be a good idea to remove that species from the allowed catches.”

The panel says permit conditions have been changed to accommodate a reduction in catches. “If they regulate, but do not enforce, there’s no point,” Andreotti says.

Lack of prudent management

Globally, about 100-million sharks are fished each year. “Part of the problem is we know so little about global white shark populations. That’s why it’s imperative to be overly cautious on how we manage the species, their human-caused threats and their environment,” says Andreotti.

Climate change, too, could play a massive and “sinister” role in the distribution of oceanic prey and their predators, says Craig Smith, senior manager of the World Wide Fund for Nature South Africa’s marine programme.

“The compliance on board these vessels has been atrocious. The observer programme has been defunct for a number of years.”

In the absence of good data, the legislation makes provision for the precautionary approach. “But socioeconomics seems to override the precautionary approach where there’s a lot more emphasis on livelihoods as opposed to sustainability … Sharks don’t vote for politicians, people do,” Smith says.

Ripple effects and Russian roulette

Great white sharks, which are long-lived and slow to breed, play a critical role in balancing the marine environment. “With their disappearance, that’s where we start playing Russian roulette with ecosystems,” Smith says.

Rowlinson is witnessing this unfold in Gansbaai. The seal population has boomed, as have the numbers of bronze whaler sharks congregating in the bay, which are “eating everything,” she says.

“The diversity of the entire area has decreased dramatically … When you take the top predator out the food chain, it seems to crash everything else,” Rowlinson says.

Fewer white sharks will increase the number and distribution of other predators, Andreotti says. “This will have drastic consequences for ecotourism activities, local tourism and the fishing industry.”

Sharks are worth more alive. “Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be enough to change the policies towards more sustainable uses of sharks, as a resource for our blue economy, rather than for cheap, exported ‘fish and chips’,” Andreotti says.

This week, a white shark was spotted in False Bay. “It goes without saying that one shark sighting is not an indication of population recovery,” Andreotti adds.


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OCEAN WATCH

Limited monitoring and government oversight depleting shark populations

By Katie Biggar for Roving Reporters• 18 March 2021

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From left: The Soupfin Shark (Galeorhinus galeus); a catch is sorted aboard a Cape trawler; the endangered Puffadder Shyshark in False Bay, Cape Town. (Photos: Flickr / Oregon Coast Aquarium | CapMarine) | Flickr / Derek Keats)

Amid government failure to properly monitor the impact of deep-sea fisheries, numbers of rays and sharks are dwindling.

South Africans love seafood. Fish and chips, prawn curry, crab curry and pickled fish are just a few of the dishes deeply rooted in our cultures. Most of us, however, have little idea where or how these animals are caught.

And while the prices in the supermarket seem plain enough, the true ecological cost of our seafood is another matter.

Although South Africa is, according to Biofin, the third most biodiverse country in the world and home to more than 200 species of sharks and rays – 34% of which are found only in our oceans – there are concerns that these creatures are increasingly under threat.

One of the ways fishermen catch our favourites, like hake and prawns, is through demersal trawling. This involves dragging a heavy, cone-shaped net along the seabed to herd and capture bottom-dwelling fish.

Sharks and rays often make up part of what is known in the industry as bycatch. These are fish and other forms of sea life caught indirectly to the target species in a fishery. If commercially viable, they are sometimes kept and processed; if not, they are discarded – typically tossed back into the ocean.

Rich pickings

Demersal hake trawling is South Africa’s most valuable fishery, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation and others. Sales of hake alone are valued at over R4-billion annually. In total, the fishery contributes around R6.7-billion to South Africa’s economy each year, while providing over 35,000 jobs directly and indirectly.

But this method of fishing damages the seafloor and is unselective in its catch. Recent stock assessments and a study by researchers from the Department of Environment, Forestry & Fisheries and TRAFFIC, the wildlife monitoring network, found that bottom trawl hake fisheries may pose the greatest threat to the survival of some chondrichthyans – a class of sea life that includes sharks, skates, rays and chimeras.

Hake is typically caught on the continental shelf edge, from the Namibian border southwards and between Cape Agulhas and Port Elizabeth, where many of South Africa’s sharks and rays are also found.

Hake is very much the target for the demersal trawlers when they set out to sea (sometimes for up to a month), but a variety of sharks and rays are frequently caught too.

This adds to the overfishing pressures sharks and rays are already facing from other forms of fishing, including long-line fishing and the black market trade in shark fins (finning is banned in South Africa).

Chondrichthyans can live for many years and are slow-growing and late to mature. They produce relatively few offspring, making it hard for them to rebound if overfished, with many species taking decades to recover.

When it comes to demersal trawling, little is known about the survival rates of the sharks and rays that are thrown back. Sharks are often dangerous to handle and poor handling practices – sometimes unavoidable when dealing with a distressed shark – coupled with the length of time that piles of bycatch lie on deck, significantly reduces survival rates.

Limits of monitoring

The South African Deep-Sea Trawling Industry Association (SADSTIA) funds an in-house scientific observer programme, with monitors aboard trawlers. The programme is among a number of sustainability measures the association advocates, but it has its limits.

It’s hard, for example, for monitors to confirm if sharks and rays are still alive when returned to the sea – something researchers have flagged as a serious concern, requiring attention.

About 70 species of chondrichthyans, including dogfish, catshark and skate species, are among the demersal hake fishery bycatch.

Dr Charlene da Silva, a researcher with the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries, confirmed that some of the country’s endemic catsharks – including the puffadder shyshark and tiger catshark – are classified as endangered. Species caught by fisheries such as the yellow-spotted skate and twineye skate are listed as vulnerable and endangered, respectively. None of these is a fisheries target species.

Da Silva said soupfin shark stocks were a particular worry and catches needed to be reduced across all commercial fishing industries. Soupfin sharks were recently listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. These are often targeted by commercial line fishers and are part of the bycatch in demersal longline and inshore demersal trawl fisheries.

Although bycatch is unavoidable in trawling, poor identification and record-keeping make it hard to quantify how many chondrichthyans are caught.

According to the Status of the South African Marine Fishery Resources (2016), stock assessments of sharks have in the past been hindered by a lack of independent fisheries data, poor data quality and few studies on the life history of sharks.

Bycatches of sharks and rays – when recorded at all – are often lumped together at a genus or even family level. Species are sometimes misidentified, and a dearth of species-specific bycatch data frustrates efforts to accurately predict population dynamics, essential for effective conservation, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

All at sea

Placing more and better-resourced observers aboard more trawlers to monitor bycatch would help, but it’s said to be expensive (Roving Reporters could not obtain exact figures) for the fisheries companies that fund it. It also deprives trawlers of bunk space needed for crew and – more recently – runs into Covid-19 social distancing difficulties.

Compounding the problem is an apparent lack of government oversight.

In 2011 the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries halted its own offshore resource observer programme.

The programme included all the hake fisheries as well as inshore and midwater fisheries, longlining and prawn fishery and its closure continues to draw sharp criticism from observers and industry figures.

These critics have questioned what becomes of the levies (about R46.7-million in the 2019/20 financial year) paid to the department, as the industry sees it, partly to fund a now-defunct programme.

The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and the Department of Environmental Affairs were merged into the current Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries in 2019.

In the past, concerns were raised about the governance of the former Department of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries.

Corruption claims

Johann Augustyn, secretary of the South African Deep-Sea Trawling Industry Association, puts the blame squarely at the door of the former Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

“The observer programme (a responsibility of the government) was halted because the efforts to issue the contract again by the Fisheries Research and Development Chief Directorate were continually frustrated by corrupt officials in the department,” he said in an email to Roving Reporters.

Pleas of poverty from the department and its successors cut little ice with Augustyn, who was formerly its chief director: marine resource management as well as fisheries research and development.

He noted that sometime after the department halted the programme the then deputy director-general responsible for it “simply said it should be paid for by industry (which was already the case, but we wanted the department to meet its own responsibilities). Now they are saying that they simply do not have the budget for it.”

Augustyn said the levies money was insufficient to cover everything the department used it for – including purposes unrelated to the sector.

Industry watchers have also questioned the management of the Marine Living Resources Fund and noted that levies had not been adjusted for more than 10 years.

Fund foibles

The fund finances the department’s fisheries branch, which is responsible for managing and monitoring the sustainable uses of marine living resources and protecting the marine ecosystem.

In recent years the fund, which relies heavily on government grants and subsidies in addition to levies on fish landed and fish products, has received disclaimed and qualified audit reports with findings.

Several senior department officials have in past years been placed on precautionary suspension, and a number of senior department posts remain vacant.

Investigations are continuing into various allegations of fraud, corruption, money laundering, contraventions of the Public Finance Management Act and Treasury regulations.

Officials have told Parliament of “leadership challenges” and the Auditor-General, in its most recent report on the fund, flagged a host of concerns including over risk management, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure and non-compliance with laws and regulations.

Moving in the right direction

In reply to questions from Roving Reporters, the department said it was untrue that corrupt officials had stymied its observer programme. No staff were currently on suspension, it said, but conceded there were a number of critical vacancies in the fisheries branch – which it was in the process of filling.

Department spokesman Zolile Nqayi insisted “budgetary constraints” were to blame for the closure of its observer programme, but said: “It should be noted that in many countries, the costs of a scientific observer programme are borne by industry and/or right holders and not by the state.”

Nqayi pointed out that South African long-line tuna fisheries in the Indian and Atlantic oceans were required by regional and international conventions to have 10% and 20% observer coverage respectively. A figure of 100% applied to foreign vessels.

The cost of all of this was met by the long-line tuna fisheries – which achieved far higher observer coverage figures than the local hake industry, he said.

But Augustyn counters that in some countries where levies are raised on industry, these are managed by fisheries authorities as part of government scientific programmes. Levies are also linked directly to rights owned by industry – “but this is not the case in South Africa”.

Nqayi said levies were used to achieve the broader objectives of the Marine Living Resources Act and to cover fisheries’ branch operational costs. “The levies are therefore used to ensure that the country’s marine resources are sustainably harvested to ensure future generations can continue to harvest our marine resources.”

The department was striving to improve governance and administration of the Marine Living Resources Fund, as shown by the improved audit outcome it had received, he said.

Nqayi was referring to the qualified opinion the Auditor-General gave the fund in 2019/2020 compared with the previous period when it received a more serious, disclaimer opinion.

On criticism that levies had not been increased for more than 10 years, Nqayi turned the tables. “Industry did not agree with the cost recovery model that was proposed. Industry was of the view that the current levies are not affordable and certain sectors are continuously seeking relief from paying levies,” he said, but added that the department intended to raise levies this year, following public consultations.

Valuable information

Leaving aside the debate on who should pay for it, the South African Deep-Sea Trawling Industry Association’s own observer programme continues to provide valuable information needed to maintain its certification with the Marine Stewardship Council.

MSC certification attests to a fishery meeting international standards for sustainable fishing. It’s about ensuring the long-term health of fish stocks.

Seafood from MSC-certified fisheries bears the blue MSC mark on its packaging, assuring consumers they are buying from a sustainable fishery. The South African hake trawl fishery has recently achieved its fourth MSC certification.

Every year the industry association’s programme covers about 40% of its members’ trawl footprint. This translates to about 6% coverage of the actual trawling effort – the percentage of trawl nets pulled up and observed. The association is aiming for 10% trawling effort coverage.

The industry association works with CapMarine, which provides trained observers and consults to maritime industries.

‘Raising the bar’

Stewart Norman, observer programme co-manager and director of CapMarine, said the MSC certification “continued to raise the bar” for the industry when it came to providing evidence on bycatch.

“Substantial comparative work… between observers, between vessels, between sub-fleets and between observer data and research data has shown the observer data to be of good quality with respect to catch composition,” Norman told Roving Reporters.

Bunk space on trawlers hampered efforts to put more observers on board, but “these limitations are being resolved in part by the advent of electronic monitoring in the fishery”.

He felt there was room for improvement in the identification of infrequently encountered skates and rays, but this was “more of an issue at landing monitoring and commercial catch statistics reporting than it is for the observer programme”.

CapMarine regularly reviewed its monitoring, he said, and made it a priority to monitor vessels that might have been missed in previous years. “More often than not” observers were meeting their targets.

“A stratified placement approach is being investigated whereby each right holder/fishing company would carry observers proportionate to the volume of total allowable catch allocated to it and the number of active vessels and sea-days allocated (total allowable effort),” he said.

Norman said the South African Deep-Sea Trawling Industry Association implemented a “trawl ring-fence” area in 2006 to prevent trawling in natural hake refuges. No further trawling was allowed in these areas unless an environmental impact assessment process was completed. The areas represent about 4.4% of South Africa’s territorial waters.

Wider responsibility

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The endangered Tiger catshark. (Photo: Flickr / Enoshima Aquarium)

No monitoring process is ever perfect, and the department’s role remains a concern, but consumers need to do their bit too.

Times have changed. Few of us now go out to hunt or fish for our food, but we ought to hold ourselves more accountable for what we eat by making informed decisions. The cost to our environment of destructive fishing practices will only grow with the increasing loss of sharks and rays.

One of the ways consumers can help ray and shark conservation is by getting the Southern African Sustainable Seafood Initiative’s list, pocket guide or smartphone app. These tools let you quickly check whether a particular fish for sale in a shop or restaurant can be eaten without harm to the environment.

According to the WWF’s sustainable seafood initiative, more effort and research is needed to improve at-sea scientific observations of fishing. This would help us to better understand its impact on ecosystems. Observers with a specific focus on sharks and rays would enhance the quality of data gathered immensely.

Sustainable use

The Marine Living Resources Act recognises the need to use South Africa’s resources sustainably and suggests a broader, ecosystem approach to management.

The government must reinstate an official observer programme and guides to aid in accurate identification of chondrichthyan species should be made available on all trawlers.

The closure of fishing areas in certain seasons and the proclamation of more marine protected areas would also help to give shark and ray stocks more opportunity to recover.

Think shark

Sharks are apex predators and control the population dynamics of many species. They are critically important for the health of our seas. At the same time, shark tourism has considerable potential in South Africa. Removing sharks from our ecosystem is bad for the ocean and bad for us.

We need to start thinking harder about how and what we are catching or what’s on our plate: food for thought the next time you tuck into your favourite plate of fish and chips, prawn curry, or that Easter pickled fish. DM

This story arises from an Ocean Watch writing project supported by the Earth Journalism Network (EJN), and Youth 4MPAS. The project enables conservation-minded youth to share their passion and develop writing skills with mentorship from Roving Reporters. Story pitches can be emailed to oceanwatch2021@gmail.com. The opinions and views expressed in this article are not necessarily those of the EJN, WildOceans or Youth4MPAs.

Katie Biggar is a marine biologist (BSc Honours – Marine Biology, from UKZN) and a freelance writer. She is passionate about environmental and ocean education. She recently won the NEW Pitch Stories of Hope competition, a filmmaking initiative that empowers youth from across Africa to make conservation-themed films. She is now working on a short documentary about her hometown and the next bird facing extinction in South Africa — the Montane blue swallow. Biggar has also been working on several poetry, fiction and nonfiction writing projects.


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Quest for elusive white shark decades ago raises questions about the species today

By Ed Stoddard• 27 September 2021

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Great white shark breaching in False Bay (Photo: Chris Fallows) | Once off use | Not for file storage | Not for resale

It is 50 years since the publication of the book Blue Meridian: The Search for the Great White Shark by famed natural history writer Peter Matthiessen. The book chronicled the making of the film Blue Water, White Death, which also hit the screens in 1971. Fifty years later, the book and the film raise fascinating questions about the species today. With the benefit of hindsight, it seems perplexing that the crew made its first attempt to find white sharks by following whaling vessels off Durban instead of heading straight to the Cape. But, as the species’ recent disappearance from False Bay suggests, white sharks are never permanent residents.

In April 1969, the Terrier VIII, a former whaling ship, set sail from Cape Town, destined for Durban. Table Mountain would have loomed in the background, perhaps shrouded in mist. The Terrier’s ultimate quest was also obscured, shrouded in the mist of marine myths and the unknowns of the deep blue.

The vessel had been chartered by a US film crew with a single-minded ambition: to do a cage dive with, and capture on film, the elusive great white shark.

It was a thrilling endeavour, mixing extreme sport with a voyage of discovery. In that sense, it captured the prevailing zeitgeist. Months later, a human would set foot on the moon for the first time. It would take until the following year for the filmmakers to finally have their face-to-face encounter with the great white, half a world away, off the coast of Australia.

The saga of the expedition was vividly captured in a book published in 1971, Blue Meridian: The Search for the Great White Shark. The author was the American Peter Matthiessen, a one-time CIA operative widely regarded as one of the greatest natural history writers of his era.

In the closing credits of the famed 1971 documentary film about the odyssey, Blue Water, White Death, Matthiessen is listed as “expedition historian”. Fifty years on, the project raises fascinating questions for anyone with an interest in the social and natural histories of the great white, or white shark in the parlance of our times.

One starting point is the Terrier’s departure beneath the hulking figure of Table Mountain. After pulling out of Cape Town as the austral autumn was setting in, the ship – manned, according to Matthiessen’s account, by Norwegian officers and a crew comprised of mostly Cape coloured people – would have set off on a southeasterly course. That would have taken it past places such as Gansbaai, a picturesque coastal village.

More than three decades later, in 2001, I did a cage dive in Gansbaai, an unforgettable experience that brought me face to face with a white shark. By then, a cage-diving industry was flourishing and well established there.

I had read Blue Meridian for the first time shortly beforehand, and was struck at the time by an obvious question: why the hell hadn’t the expedition started in Gansbaai?

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The Terrier VIII, a former whaling ship.

Why did the Terrier, after passing within miles, if not right over, prime white shark territory, forge ahead until it rounded the southern tip of Africa, only to press on in a jaggedly northeasterly course from the frigid Atlantic into the warm, subtropical embrace of South Africa’s Indian Ocean coast? We’ll come back to this shortly.

The reason for the Terrier’s destination lay in the vessel’s former role: South Africa’s whaling industry. And Durban was its main port of call.

The expedition’s leaders reckoned the best chance of finding the great white was to be had by following the last of South Africa’s whaling vessels from Durban to their killing zones, where sperm whales were still harpooned in a clinically industrial manner, if not quite the industrial scale that the slaughter had once obtained. And indeed, sharks by the score would be attracted to the carcasses of the slain whales, and caught in memorable footage by the underwater videographers who made Blue Water, White Death a bone-chilling ode to Neptune’s realm.

But most were oceanic white-tipped reef sharks. They would not catch sight of a single white shark, and so the project would move on, the Terrier following its northeastern trajectory to Sri Lanka, before it headed back to Africa, with attempts off the Comoro Islands and Mozambique.

Finally, the film crew made a last-ditch attempt at the aptly named “Dangerous Reef” off Australia, where the species was finally filmed by divers in – and out of – a protective cage.

This was under the guidance of Rodney Fox, a famed Australian diver who invented the first cages for shark diving and had previously made shark documentaries with Rod and Valerie Taylor, who were also involved in Blue Water, White Death.

A champion spear fisherman, Fox survived a savaging by a white shark in 1963, not far from Adelaide. A subsequent trip to the zoo would inspire the idea for a cage from which to observe white sharks. Fox wanted to get back into the water, but he didn’t want to be exposed to another attack.

“I was in the Adelaide Zoo and we were looking at the lions in the cage and there was a moat around it. I wondered why the moat – it was to keep the humans from reaching their arms in. And I thought they were man-eaters and I saw the water. So I reversed the role and built a cage for humans,” Fox, who was 80 at the time, told me in a phone interview from his South Australian base. He is a surviving member of the Blue Meridian narrative’s final Australian stage.

Matthiessen makes it clear in the book that the expedition did not have an endless pot of cash or investors who could be chummed. Like almost all films, it had a budget, and that must have been stretched to the limit.

This brings me back to the question raised above: why on Earth would you start a search for great whites in South African waters and not begin in the cold waters of the Cape, where we now know they often occur in significant numbers, and where an entire ecotourism industry has been built around their presence?

“From Durban, we know now they needed to turn right instead of going straight,” Fox told me.

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There can only be two, possibly related, explanations for this. One is that the species’ existence in the Cape waters was not common public knowledge like it is today. The other is that the species is not always present there, or at least not in relative abundance.

Then, recently, the white sharks seemed to vanish into thin air. In 2017, white shark sightings in the Cape hot spots of False Bay and Gansbaai declined steeply. No white sharks were seen at all in 2019, and one was finally sighted in False Bay in January 2020 – the first one seen there in 20 months.

A number of possible reasons have been given, including predation by orcas, which seem to have a fondness for sharks’ livers.

And that got me thinking: could that have been the state of play when Blue Meridian was being written and Blue Water, White Death was being filmed? Could the Terrier, on its passage to Durban from Cape Town, have passed by or through waters where the predator was largely absent at that time?

If that is the case, then this is a classic example of “changing baseline syndrome” – our propensity to regard the natural world encountered in our lifetime as the norm.

The 2017 to 2020 decline and vanishing act may not be unusual events – it is possible the species has also been scarce at times in False Bay and Gansbaai before. Indeed, there is data that I will discuss below that suggests that this is indeed the case.

It’s also possible that the Cape waters were effectively devoid of the species in the public mind in the late 1960s, even if they teemed with white sharks. Either way, it underscores a wider point: our dearth of knowledge about white sharks, and marine species and ecosystems more generally.

“I’ve been working in this field since 1998 and it’s still only a snapshot of their lives, as they can reach up to 75 years in age and we tend to forget that. From … personal experience I feel like I have dedicated almost half of my life to trying to understand them. But, on the other side, that is only a small part of their lives,” Alison Kock, a marine biologist and shark expert with South African National Parks, told me. “We still don’t fully understand the distributional ranges of these sharks and the drivers behind them.”

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(Photo: Elias Levy)

Scant science

If that is the case today, imagine the state of play in the 1960s. The members of the 1969 expedition were generally guided by the prevailing knowledge at that time regarding white sharks. This was not extensive.

Fox told me that after his attack he was looking for information on his attacker, but could only find “three or four books on game fishing, with horrible pictures of sharks that had been caught and they looked ugly and horrible and they had no underwater photographs of sharks”.

Still, there was some information available. On some matters Matthiessen, the expedition’s scribbler, had clearly done his homework, while also making some dubious assertions. And even with the benefit of hindsight, the expedition made some questionable decisions.

In the book, Matthiessen writes that Stan Waterman, one of the film’s cinematographers, “had never seen a white shark underwater, but last summer one came up and nudged his skiff in the Gulf of Maine… In 1953, off Cape Breton Island, a lobsterman drowned when a white shark foundered his dory; his companion clung to the wreckage and survived. White shark attacks upon small boats have occurred regularly in the Maine-Nova Scotia region, and apparently the fish is noted for this tendency wherever it is found.”

That intrigued this correspondent, who happens to hail from Nova Scotia.

And the 1953 incident off Cape Breton did, in fact, take place. It is recorded in a 2017 Fisheries and Oceans Canada report on white sharks in Atlantic Canada.

The report includes an appendix of the historical record of white shark sightings and catches in Atlantic Canada from the early 1870s to 2016.

Published in the same year that white shark sightings in the Cape waters fell dramatically, the report came out against a backdrop of growing interest in and monitoring of the species’ presence in Nova Scotian waters. It is also noted in the Global Shark Attack File (GSAF), a project of the Shark Research Institute.

The attack Matthiessen refers to took place on 9 July 1953, off Fourchu, Cape Breton. “Teeth in attacked dory; dory attacked and sunk,” says the brief description of the event. But the historical record does not support the writer’s comment that white shark attacks on small boats were common in such waters.

The 1953 Cape Breton sinking by a torpedo with teeth was the last recorded shark attack in eastern Canadian waters until August this year, when a 21-year-old woman was airlifted to hospital after an apparent savaging by a shark. Before the 1953 incident, there are only three others noted sporadically over the preceding 80 years – in the early 1870s, in 1920 and in 1932.

But Matthiessen’s assertion that the big fish has a “tendency” to attack small boats is borne out by the GSAF, which mentions many such incidents over the years in Australian and South African waters. We shall return below to this database, which stretches back to antiquity.

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(Photo: Pixabay)

Thar she blows

The decision to follow whaling vessels was not far-fetched, even if it failed. On 4 March this year, South Carolina fisherman Chip Michalove witnessed a dead northern right whale being ripped to shreds by great whites, telling The Atlantic that he had never beheld such a feeding frenzy before.

But no great whites would be lured by the dead leviathans harpooned off Durban while the Blue Water, White Death crew was filming. Rodney Fox’s son Andrew, who, along with his father, operates a diving company catering to tourists in Australia, told me in a telephone interview that it seemed the whalers may have confused oceanic white-tipped sharks with great whites.

“Before Blue Water, White Death, Dad had already done a couple of films with Ron Taylor on great white sharks. They did one or two variants… [Filmmaker] Peter Gimbel had a million-dollar budget and he had the vision to make a documentary. He heard these stories about white sharks stripping whales down to the bone and they confused white-tip oceanic sharks with great white sharks. But nobody really knew where they were and what they did. They were exploring and pioneering,” the younger Fox told me.

The bloody feeding scenes featuring hordes of white-tipped sharks made for graphic footage five decades ago, but that was not the point of the expedition. They wanted a great white.

And there were tantalising clues about white sharks in the colder Cape waters, but the expedition did not rise to the bait.

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A white shark cruises off Fish Hoek beach, in Cape Town’s False Bay. This photo was taken by the Shark Spotters research team while trying to tag great white sharks along the inshore areas of False Bay in 2006 to learn more about their inshore patterns of behaviour. The team has published several papers on this behaviour now. Picture: © Alison Kock.

An Englishman named Basil Livingstone, the owner of a small fleet of vessels including the Terrier, appears in the narrative of Blue Meridian. Inspecting the shark cages on the foredeck of the Terrier, he declared them to be “flimsy”, based on his own experience with white sharks. Matthiessen writes that Livingstone claimed to have caught white sharks in Saldanha Bay on South Africa’s Atlantic coast, north of Cape Town.

Then there is the jarring opinion of the unnamed coloured contingent of the Terrier’s crew, as well as that of those who manned the W-29, the whaling vessel the filmmakers and writer trailed.

“The crew officers are Norwegian, the crewmen mostly Cape [coloureds]… The whalemen among them are fascinated by the search for the great white shark. Like the crew of the W-29, they claim they have never seen it in these latitudes, though it occurs farther south in the cold waters off the Cape of Good Hope,” Matthiessen wrote. (Italics added.)

Matthiessen goes on to write: “The opinion of the crewmen must be taken seriously since they have seen thousands of sharks, though whether they have looked at them is another matter: when closely questioned, they admit that they have never seen the white shark at all, in cold waters or warm.”

So the expedition had anecdotal evidence of great whites in the vicinity of the Cape. And the crew members fessed up that they had never actually seen one.

Still, their claims that they were found in the cold Cape waters were intriguing in hindsight. What were the grounds for such a view, even one that proved uncertain? Matthiessen does not seem to have pressed them on that issue.

More telling perhaps is the South African media coverage of the expedition. Matthiessen writes that there was plenty of that, not all of it flattering. “There was a press conference at quayside, complete with three models who moved as a trio, expressionless and inseparable as baby fish, and the papers the next morning were full of silly stories about New York millionaires seeking white death in local waters.”

He noted that the stories “curled the [greying] hair” of filmmaker Peter Gimbel. Unnamed publicity people kept feeding the local press updates of the filming.

What is striking about this state of affairs is that no one in the local media appears to have questioned why the filmmakers were not going to the Cape in the first place.

Matthiessen makes no mention of anyone from the media pointing this out. This suggests that the local media, and the wider South African public, were broadly unaware of a significant white shark population around the Cape.

How was that possible in 1969, given what we might think we know now? (This correspondent has tried without success to get access to newspaper archives that could shed light on the local media coverage at the time. When and if I do, I plan a follow-up to this piece with these missing pieces to the puzzle.)

The GSAF database – which is incomplete, it must be said – offers some clues.

In the 1950s, it only records four confirmed incidents involving white sharks in all of what is now the Western Cape province, and only two in False Bay.

Then, suddenly, in 1960, there is a spate of incidents. In April 1960, a white shark reportedly rammed a ski boat in Saldanha Bay. In the month of October alone, there are three, one in Saldanha Bay and two in False Bay, all involving white sharks ramming boats – underscoring Matthiessen’s assertion that the species was known for this type of apparently aggressive behaviour.

In June 1962, a white shark slams into another boat in False Bay. For the remainder of the decade, there are only three recorded white shark encounters in Western Cape waters. One was on the Garden Route, well east of the False Bay/Gansbaai area, though also in a region that would become known for white shark diving.

The other two would both take place in False Bay, one near the Strand, when a white shark holed a boat. The occupants of the boat were said to be “shark watching”. The next occurrence came in 1964 in Muizenberg, when a man had his right ankle lacerated by a 1.5m white shark.

So for all of the 1960s, there are only eight white shark attacks or episodes recorded by the GSAF in Western Cape waters, the last one in 1964. In KwaZulu-Natal waters, there are half a dozen white shark attacks recorded in the 1960s, two of which were fatal and so presumably they would have made more of a media splash.

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(Photo: Armin Rodler)

That suggests there was some knowledge of white shark populations in South African waters, but physical encounters involving boats or people – the kind noted in the GSAF – and the species remained scattered. In the last half of the 1960s, there were none of this nature reported in the Western Cape at all.

In Australia, for all of the 1960s, there are 13 recorded attacks by white sharks on boats or people, including the 1963 incident that almost cost Rodney Fox his life. That is also not a lot, but there was certainly evidence pointing to Australia’s south coast as a possibility, which indeed turned out to be the case.

The decision to go to Sri Lanka and the Comoros seems to have been completely misguided. There are no incidents involving the species in the waters of either country at all in the 1960s in the GSAF. They also tried a couple of dives off the northern Mozambique coast.

But the expedition can hardly be faulted for its failure to go to the Cape waters where the Terrier had originated. White shark incidents at the time were apparently relatively rare then, at least according to the records compiled by the GSAF.

Sort of like what unfolded perhaps between 2017 and 2020 in False Bay and Gansbaai.

Rise of the wet suit

Another intriguing point about the GSAF database is that in the 1950s and 1960s, only four of the reported Western Cape white shark incidents involved attacks directly on people, and none of them was fatal. At least one was a spear fisherman, another was “diving for sinkers”.

But in the 1970s, there were no fewer than 10 incidents in Western Cape waters involving direct physical interactions between Homo sapiens and white sharks.

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A Great White shark (Carcharodon carcharias) is seen in Gansbaai, South Africa. (Photo: EPA/HELMUT FOHRINGER)

The humans were surfing, spear fishing or swimming. And in November 1976 at Clifton Beach in Cape Town, 19-year-old Geoffrey Spence was bitten in the torso. He was thrashing in the water while imitating a victim from the movie Jaws – a case of life imitating art.

This apparent surge in white shark attacks on humans in the frigid Cape waters may be explained by the rise of the wet suit.

“Most of the shark information in South Africa before 1990 came from the Natal Sharks Board and they were not located in the Cape. In the Cape, where the water is very cold, swimming and surfing only became popular with the advent of wet suits on a commercial scale in the 1970s,” Kock said.

That would explain the relative dearth of incidents before the 1970s between humans and white sharks in Western Cape waters. (Many scientists are now pushing to have direct encounters between humans and sharks rebranded as “interactions” or “bites”. This may look like an example of “wokeness” but it is driven by the fact that humans are not typically on the menu of sharks and that they are not believed to always bite humans out of aggression or predatory instincts. This writer remains comfortable using the term “attack”, but it seems to be falling out of scientific favour.)

The 1970s also saw a rise of white shark fishing – the popularity of Jaws probably played a role here – and that seems to have spawned some of the incidents recorded along the Western Cape coast over the course of that decade.

In 1974 alone, a shark fisherman named Danie Schoeman was entangled in three hair-raising incidents with white sharks noted in the GSAF. His boat was holed twice that year and once a white shark leapt into his boat and bit a chair.

Kock also notes that in 1991, white sharks became a protected species, “after which shark fishermen started turning to shark tourism, and so the rise of shark tourism took place in the early 1990s”.

Along with this came increased scientific monitoring and public awareness of the populations – a level of scrutiny that had not been obtained before.

This would shape our current “baseline” – the perception that because white sharks almost always seemed to occur in False Bay and nearby Cape waters in the 1990s and 2000s, this was the natural or normal state of affairs.

But as the recent disappearance of white sharks from False Bay and other Cape waters, and the experience of the film crew chronicled by Blue Meridian suggest, the sharks seem to come and go.

“The disappearance from False Bay and Gansbaai has not been mirrored in Mossel Bay or Algoa Bay,” Kock said. “And, in fact, we are now getting even more sightings of white sharks along the KwaZulu-Natal coastline than we ever have before.

“Why they use these different areas in different years is possibly related to environmental conditions, the availability of prey and their life stage. At different life stages they have different nutritional needs. So you might find them moving from one spot to another spot as they mature, based on what they need at that stage of their lives.”

Elsewhere, white sharks appear to be returning – or increasing in numbers – around another Cape, namely Cape Cod on America’s northeast coast. Or perhaps this is just the perspective informed by our baseline. Rising seal numbers and a more than two-decade ban on fishing or hunting the big sharks have been among the reasons given for the species’ growing presence in waters off the New England tourist mecca. That has raised alarms about the dangers to human swimmers and surfers in the area.

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A great white shark off the South African coast. (Photo: www.sharksafesolution.com)

Further north up the coast in July last year, the state of Maine recorded its first-ever incident of a human being killed by a shark. In 2018, 26-year-old Arthur Medici was killed by a shark while boogie boarding at a Cape Cod beach – the first fatal shark attack on a human at Cape Cod in more than 80 years.

Australia or bust

The Blue Water, White Death cast and crew did finally get their shark off Australia’s Dangerous Reef – but without the Terrier, replaced by the Saori for the exhibition’s last attempt.

Matthiessen writes that the logistics on the water “were the province” of Rodney Fox.

Dangerous Reef lies in the Spencer Gulf, and Matthiessen would write that the Australian divers on the Saori “think that Spencer Gulf is the best place in the world to film the great white shark, which is drawn inshore by sea lions”.

This raises the obvious question: why did the expedition not go there in the first place? Be that as it may, this final destination would finally yield the creature they had begun their quest for, off of Durban. The crew was almost at their wits’ end when a voice, according to Matthiessen, yelled “Shark!” down the companionway.

There were a pair of white sharks – the larger one a heavy male about 4m in length, attracted by copious amounts of bait and chum. And they did not act like the sharks filmed off Durban. This was a different kettle of fish.

“The sharks off Durban … probed the cages and scraped past,” Matthiessen writes, “but never once, in hundreds of encounters, did one attack them open-mouthed. The white sharks were to attack the cages over and over.”

Thousands of miles to the west, had the expedition missed a golden opportunity while in South Africa to film the species in the Terrier’s home waters of the Cape?

Perhaps they had, and perhaps they hadn’t. That point remains a mystery, as elusive as the white shark almost proved to be for the underwater pioneers behind a marvellous book and film that appeared 50 years ago. Half a century later, there remain many white shark mysteries for scientists to unravel.

“We still have so many unanswered questions,” the shark scientist Kock told me. DM168


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