Cape Town - Amid the absence of great white shark sightings, environment minister Barbara Creecy has called for public comments on a proposal to temporarily extend the False Bay White Shark Cage Diving operating area from Seal Island to the inshore area next to Strandfontein Beach.
The idea is to help the tourism sector in the False Bay area, which has been struggling since the great whites at Seal Island started disappearing in 2017.
This will allow White Shark Cage Diving operators to attract other shark species, such as bronze whaler sharks still in the bay of the new extended area, using chum and other methods.
Shark diving companies in False Bay support this proposal because their businesses have been negatively affected by the decline in great white shark sightings and they fear losing an entire sector and all its jobs.
Apex Shark Expeditions director Karyn Cooper said this had been a death blow to False Bay and the Cape South Peninsula’s largest non-governmental tourism sector, which brought in more than 7 000 international tourists a year before the pandemic.
Shark Zone owner Stephen Frank said: “We have tourists coming specifically to South Africa to dive with great white sharks, and obviously with Cape Town being a premier destination, this is where they want do so. At the moment we’re sending tourists away from Cape Town to the Overberg region and up to Mossel Bay where there was a higher chance of seeing the great white sharks.”
He said there would be public concern about drawing the sharks closer to shore, but said this would not affect bathers or swimmers in the area.
“All the scientific studies undertaken by DFFE (Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment) and other scientists showed there was no link between our activities and shark incidents. There has never been a confirmed fatal shark incident by a bronze whaler shark in our country’s history, let alone False Bay’s,” Cooper said.
Mayco member for spatial planning and environment Eddie Andrews said: “While we hold the view that cage diving with bronze whalers does not pose any risk to bather safety, we also recognise that the Strandfontein coastline forms part of the previously disadvantaged communities of Cape Town and the perception may be created that cage diving is allowed off previously disadvantaged communities beaches but not off previously (currently) advantaged communities beaches.
“Public perception and the context of our complex South African history must therefore be considered in the decision-making process.”