St. Lucia Wetlands Guest House

Shark Attacks

Shark attacks "A Limited Threat"; An analysis of South African shark attacks in the past four years, carried out by the Natal Sharks Board, found that shark attacks are rare events, with an average of only four incidents a year.

Of these, less that 30% resulted in serious injury and only 11% were fatal. This equates to an average of one serious shark-inflicted injury every year and one shark-inflicted fatality every 2.3 years along about 2 000km of coast from the Mozambique border to Cape Town.

The worst year on record for shark attacks in South Africa was 1998, when 15 incidents were recorded.

All of these attacks took place in Cape waters, one was fatal and five resulted in serious injuries.

There is still no explanation for the spate of incidents in 1998, but in the next two years the number of incidents dropped to around six a year, with only a single fatality and one other serious attack.

Research on www.shark.co.za says many of the injuries inflicted on humans by sharks have been minor and it is certainly incorrect to conclude that every incident is the result of a shark trying to eat its victim.

Some sharks, such as the great white, tiger and zambezi, are aggressive species. They are equipped with razor-sharp teeth and wide mouths and are capable of causing considerable damage with little effort. There is little or no evidence to indicate that these species defend territories, but some attacks may be the result of a shark investigating or repelling an intruder in its immediate vicinity.

Nearly 10% of attacks in Cape waters have been by ragged tooth sharks (sand tiger/gray nurse shark), but it is not regarded as an aggressive species and the injuries have all been superficial.

The ragged toothed shark has long sharply-pointed teeth that lack serrations. Such dentition is designed to seize relatively small fish that are often swallowed whole.

Most of the incidents involving this species have taken place in shallow, murky waters and are probably a result of shark and human literally "bumping" into one another. In the last 40 years, 17 people have lost their lives in shark attacks on the South African coast, whereas in 1996 alone, 85 people drowned at sea."

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