EDITOR – I read the article in the Sun of 8 August that a whale had washed up on the beach and that the municipality had buried the remains on the beach.
I have been diving for a number of years along the KZN coastline and I have been fortunate to have dive with Mark Addison of Blue Wilderness, where I could observe different shark behaviour patterns during baited dives.
The municipality disposed of the whale remains by burying them above the high water mark on the beach, and this will result in an increase of shark attacks along the coast from the Bluff to Scottburgh.
The whale should have been towed out to sea so that the sharks could eat the remains, or buried in a land fill site far from the coast.
When the whaling station was operating at the Bluff, there was a very high incidence of shark attacks along our coast and a number on the South Coast, only after a lengthy period did the shark attacks diminish due to the whale oil slick decreasing. This was the oil that was left on the surface ground surround the whaling station.
The reason for the attacks is that the bones and meat of the whale will rot, but the blubber will not decay. If you dig up the remains 40 years from now, you might still find blubber emitting traces of oil. These traces of the whale oil will be carried out to sea by the natural flow of underground fresh water from the land and the sea at high tide. The sharks will follow the scent trail to the source.
The current direction will influence the areas where the sharks will come from, and should they encounter a diver, surfer or bather in the surf area, there could be a potential shark attack.
The municipality should dig up the remains and dispose of them at sea, or at a landfill site far from the coast.
A surfer at Port St Johns passed a remark after a shark attack on a surfer: “The shark attacks have increased since the municipality buried a whale on the beach.”
If there is an increase in shark attacks it will influence the people’s holiday destination and Toti business will suffer, so the municipality should do something soon to prevent a shark attack.
The shark nets at the beaches catch all types of sea animals which start to decay, and send out a scent trail which in turn attracts sharks from far out at sea to the close proximity of the bathing beaches. The nets are baiting stations for sharks who also get caught up in the nets and should be removed as well.
DAVID BATES
