Is ritual slaughtering of animals on the beach to blame for two fatal shark attacks in the waters off Port St Johns this year?

After two young men died after being attacked by sharks, a task team was set up to investigate the attacks and their conclusion, presented in an official report released on Tuesday, is that the sharks were attracted to the beach by the smell of blood and other animal remains from the ritual slaughtering of animals.

Both the Zambezi shark (Carcharhinus leucas, also known as Bull shark) and the Tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier) are notorious scavengers and the smell of blood in the water attracts them to places where they can feast on animal remains.

Also conducive to the shark attacks was the beach’s proximity to the Umzimvubu River, “a well known nursery ground for Zambezi sharks”, said the Natal Sharks Board team of experts. In a statement issued jointly with the department of environmental affairs and tourism, the team said newborn and juvenile Zambezi sharks had been captured in the Umzimvubu River.

The team also stated that sewerage entering the river or the sea probably wasn’t a significant factor in the attacks.

Picture by: Andy Murch diver photographer  (CC3)

To prevent future attacks, the team recommended having the rituals moved away from this popular beach and not to be carried out on any other beach used by swimmers and surfers. In addition to this, signs ought to be erected warning visitors of the possibility of shark attacks. The team recommends any swimmers to stick together in groups and not to venture far out from the shoreline.

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In January, Wild Coast Coast lifeguard Sikhanyiso Bangilizwe, 27, was fatally attacked by a shark off Port St Johns, making him the second lifeguard fatally attacked by sharks in this area in two years. Just two months after the January attack, a 16-year-old died of his injuries 30 minutes after being wounded by a shark in the same region.

After the death of Bangilizwe, his nephew, Lumka Bangilizwe, also a lifeguard, blamed the attack on an absence of shark nets and the animal rituals conducted there by traditional healers.

“Then what do you expect? Sharks smell all of that and come near where people are swimming,” he said claiming the municipality knew about the practice, but did nothing to stop it.

Environmental experts, meanwhile, suggested that untreated sewage entering the water might have attracted smaller fish which in turned lured the sharks near, but the municipality denied any spillage of sewage into the ocean.