Great White Comes Too Close - FULL STORY

Great White Comes Too Close - FULL STORY

Being attacked by a Great White shark scares the crap out of all of us spearfisherman. The Eastern and Western Cape in South Africa has extreme concentrations of these awesome creatures. But as awesome as they are, they are not what you want to see when spearfishing.

The original video clip "Great White Comes Too Close" created a huge stir on the internet so we went and got the full story. Richard Leonard went to Eugene van Wyngaardt the man who captured this amazing footage to get the whole story and the rest of footage not shown on Youtube.

I dig the part where you can hear Eugene screaming #$&% through his snorkel.

Coatesman

Great White Shark Off Christmas Bay

The Great White Shark 'Courage' not far from Christmas Bay KZN

Where were you spearfishing on Wednesday 3rd July??? Well hopefully not off Christmas Bay on the Dolphin Coast!! Because you might have bumped into 'Courage' the 12'6" long, 1372lb (856.5kg) mature male Great White Shark!!
If you had, I think you might have needed much 'courage'. I shark that size in 3-5m water is enough to make you crap yourself to death, let alone the fact that it is a Great White!!

Follow Courage Click Here 

On the other hand... when you are not crapping your self, it is quiet cool to see where these beasts have been roaming. Great White sharks are serious travellers, travelling for thousands of kilometers between continents. I am happy with that as long as where I dive is on of the layovers on their prowling route. 

I know sharks don't 'really' eat people, and I am the first to say not to worry about the sharks. But the thought of spearfishing in the average murk we have with a Great White is daunting. Just thinking about the idea makes me respect the spearfisherman who dive around the Western and Eastern Cape coastlines. No wonder they hide in the kelp hunting 'Hotties' .... I would also be too s*%t scared to venture out :-)

To follow some Great White sharks in your area go to Ocearch Global Shark Tracker
But may I suggest that 'ignorance is bliss'

Coatesman

Spearfishing Shark Attack

This past week there were rumors of a shark attack. They ranged from some one hearing of an attack to a 5 meter Great White attacking a spearfisherman to a diver being swallowed by a Great White. I called the local sharks board guy on Thursday morning and at that stage he had not heard anything so I fobbed it off as stories.

That was until I got this email from Fourie Combrinck

Every Spearfishermans worst nightmare

On the 4th of May at about 8am we launched from Glenmore Beach on the lower south coast. It looked like to what was going to turn out to be a perfect day for some diving, flat see and only a light S Westerly blowing. Our late start was due to the problem that we could not get two stroke marine oil at the local garage the reason for this was  the ski boat compos which took place over the long week ends.
After diving on some spots in the Glenmore erea without any success we both decided to head towards one of our favorite spots in the Palm Beach er ea. I noticed a lot of activity in the water which I could make out to be red eyed sardines while turns were bombarding them from the air.
After anchoring and in a flurry to kit up we were soon both in the water because after the long spell of dirty water we where both eager to shoot some fish.The visibility was plus minus 6 to 7 meters and the temperature quite warm for this time of year according to me My dive buddy Trevor Burger beat me to it an soon bagged a nice bronzy. After he landed his second fish and me only seeing a big shoal of pinkys I drifted of to the southern side of the reef, about 20 to 25 meters away. After another fruitless down on which I only came across some black tails and a barbel I surfaced to see Trevor siting on the boat. He shouted to me to get to the boat as there was a shark in the vicinity. This was strange to me as we both have encountered sharks before with out them hassling us.
I was surprised to hear Trevor say that he was bitten by the shark. According to him he shot a banky (finger fin) at about 10 meters and on his way to the surface felt the shark biting on to his lower left leg and shaking him twice before letting go  and swimming away.He only saw the shark after it let go of him from behind and was unable to recognize the species, but we both suspect it to be a dusky as we have encountered them in the erea before. Again I was surprised by the speed of these animals underwater how quickly it attacked and disappeared.
Trevor bandaged his leg while I raced back to Glenmore from where my wife Lindy took him to hospital.
After some serious stitching (58) and crimps four days later Trevor was released from hospital  but like a true spearo cant wait for the wounds to heal so that he can go diving again
To all the people that lend a helping hand on the beach we want to say thank you and to the ouk that saw two spearos being attacked by a 5,5 great white in the same erea...sorry I know nothing of it.

This is not the kind of thing any of us enjoy hearing about, and sends shivers down my spine. Trevor sorry, this is heavy ... I guess on the bright side there is no disabling damage and you have one serious cool conversation starter next time your in the pub trying to chat up a blonde. God speed with your recovery and hope to see you in the water soon.

Coatesman

Spearfishing Update

Hi guys,

Sorry for being so quiet, I have been away and my mobile internet conection took a dive. And when I got back my home internet was also problematic and I am online for the first time in days.

The Cape trip was very good, I met some amazing people, the whole tuna hunt did not go eexactly as planned ...but thats how it goes.
On the the other hand I experinced almost all the sides of the Cape. From my dive at Struisbaai and seeing a Great White to the west coast and shooting a Yellow Tail and Hottie!

 Some West Coast "Tail"

The westcoast was nice and chilly, on the ride out some of the water was 10deg ... fortunatly we landed up in a balmy 14deg so it was only my toes and hands that I lost feeling in!

The weather did clear enough to get out to the canyon to look for tuna. The first day was a little rough but our skipper landed up with a 12kg longfin tuna. I got some great footage of Blue sharks and saw a Mako zipping in and out the chum line.

The second day was calm but the fish were very quiet, we saw acouple more sharks and some seals, but thats about it.

All in all it was a great trip and I learnt alot from the guys  ..... and realised how hard it is to dive in cold water!!

Other sadder news is that Mark Ragotzki - Dive Factory JHB has been bitten by a shark in Vilanculos while diving with Rob Allen. He is in hospital and it sounds like the doc's have saved his foot and he is recovering. I dont have any details about what happened yet. .....thoughts are with you Mark, get well my friend.

Gee this is a sober reminder of the dangers out there!!

Coatesman

Great White Shark and Surfer

If Yesterdays pics of the Great White Shark did not send shivers down your spine! Well Hows this pic? I wonder if the surfer knows he was being watched by the white.

Coatesman

Great White Sharks at Zinkwazi Beach

 

 4.2m Great White Shark at Zinkwazi Beach

The last thing you want to hear about is the big Great White Shark caught in the shark nets at Zinkwazi Beach.

What makes it even more scary and not a freak thing is that they caught another one today of 2.8m!!

Just the view to make you want to go swim!!

Apparently these are female sharks, they caught and released the 4.2m one the day before but it returned and died in the nets yesturday. The second one was smaller only 2.8m ...it would have to bite mybe twice to swollow you!!

I think that the cold upwelling of water we have been experiencing has some hand in this freak occurrence. Not that we dont get Great White Sharks here, just not 2 in 2 days.

Not so happy to be dangeling my toes tomorrow morning!!

Coatesman

Zambezi Sharks

There have been a number of reports of some large sharkes on our coast recently not unuseual for summer. There have even been sightings of Great White Sharks!! Now thats a little disterbing! But for the most part its been Zambezi and other smaller Greys and Milkys.

Quiet a few spearfisherman have been harrased and lost their fish to sharks, and one skiboater said that they had to move from a FAD last week as a super large Great whaite was chomping everything.

Interesting that there have been 2 articles in the news on Zambezi's this week already. One a World Record Zambezi was caught in the Breede river, and the other a fatal attack on a life guard in the Kei.

Killer shark identified as Zambezi after examination of lifeguard‘s body

A ZAMBEZI shark was responsible for attacking and killing a Port St Johns lifeguard at the weekend, Natal Sharks Board head researcher Geremy Cliff said yesterday.

He said warm waters along the Eastern Cape coast in summer attracted the sharks.

Seasoned lifeguard Sikhanyiso Bangilizwe, 27, was attacked by the shark on Saturday afternoon while swimming with a friend at Second Beach.

He was bitten on the shoulder, right arm, back and buttocks.

Cliff said an examination of Bangilizwe‘s body had established that a Zambezi (bull) shark had attacked him.

Read More - http://www.theherald.co.za/herald/news/n17_28012009.htm

World Record Zambezi Caught in the Breede River

Dear all,

I write to give you the details of our research expedition to the Breede River during the week January 19-25.

The purpose of the expedition was to determine whether reports of Zambezi (bull) sharks in the Breede River could be confirmed.  Scientifically, confirmed reports would be extremely relevant on a global scale as this would represent the most south-westerly distribution of bull sharks in Africa.

Joining us on the expedition was Dr. Steve Lamberth and his team from MCM, Hennie Papenfuss from Big Fish Safari and a team of four from SASC.  We fished for 3 days with no luck & were rewarded on the 4th day when Hennie caught a bull shark on his line.  After an hour and a half struggle with the fish (during which it towed him 2.5km further upstream), Hennie managed to tire her enough to bring her close to shore for landing.  Our team then brought her carefully to the shore, where we were able to collect all the required data.  

We measured her, tagged her with two acoustic continuous tags and one spaghetti tag, and gathered genetic samples in order to determine whether bull sharks in the Breede River represent a distinct population from those found elsewhere in South Africa.  

She is a world-record breaking shark measuring 4 metres total length, weighing in the vicinity of 550-600kg.  This is the largest bull shark known to science - the previous maximum size was thought to be 3.5 metres TL.  We also suspect she was heavily pregnant and may very well be using the Breede as a pupping ground.  Scientifically speaking, this discovery is huge and groundbreaking.

Following the tagging, we proceeded to track her for 43 continuous hours.  She spent the majority of the time in the estuary, with only a few hours in the surf zone just outside the river mouth.

Read More - http://www.sealine.co.za/view_topic.php?id=15131&forum_id=1

Coatesman

Filming Great White Sharks

My mate Graeme Duane from DigiStream has carved a name for him self in the film industry
when it comes to filming Sharks in particular Great White Sharks. Sharks however its not the only thing gets up close and personal with. Go check his blog some wild things going on there!!

Coatesman