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Category Archive for 'South Africa' at Swim At Your Own Risk

Archive for the 'South Africa' Category

Shark Drags Student Underwater Off South Africa Coast!


A student has been left with severe cuts to her leg after she was attacked by a shark off the South African coast.

Sarah Haiden was snorkelling at a reef a mile offshore near the Mozambique border when she was dragged under the water. The 21-year-old had been swimming with three other divers and thought one of them was ‘playing a joke on her’, before she realised she had been attacked by the killer fish.

The crew of a speed boat which had taken her and the other divers to the reef managed to pull her from the water and she was rushed to hospital with injuries to her lower left leg.

Yeouch!

[Read more]

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Shark Warning At South Africa Beaches


People have been advised to stay out of the water off the False Bay coast after several sharks were spotted this week.

The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) and Working On Sharks Group are urgently appealing to bathers and paddlers on the False Bay coastline to exercise extreme caution out in the water due to increased shark activity, NSRI spokesman Craig Lambinon said.

[read more]

photo: noserider

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Ankle Biter! Shark Attacks Surfer In South Africa!


Surfer Brendan Denton, 35, was attacked by a shark at a Port Alfred beach yesterday.

All the beaches in the area have been closed until further notice.

Denton was surfing at East Beach at about 10am yesterday when he felt a tug at his feet and realized it was a shark.

“I tried to fight the shark off, but it became (more) aggressive and started dragging me by the feet under the water,” Denton said.

Friends and other surfers helped him to get to a doctor.

Paramedics on the scene had said Denton may need to have the tendons on his feet and on the insides of both ankles re-attached. Yeouch!

[source]

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Teen Attacked By shark in South Africa!


A 19-year-old surfer was bitten by a shark at the Kwelera Mouth, East Coast Resorts just after 12pm on Tuesday.

The teenager was out surfing with three friends when the shark was spotted. After being bitten, the teen quickly paddled back to the shore and friends immediately rushed him to the local pharmacy. Pharmacy?

He had some deep lacerations on his right leg so they bandaged him up at the pharmacy and stabilised him until he could be taken to the hospital.

[source]

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Hobie Hammerheads!


A shark alert was raised at Hobie Beach in South Africa yesterday after several hammerhead sharks had been spotted at the popular beach.

A lifeguard said seven sharks about a 3ft in length had been spotted but a photographer on the scene saw two larger ones of about 12ft in length.

Lifesaver Kirstin Jaftha, who was on duty at Hobie Beach yesterday morning about 9.30am, said people on the beach had alerted lifeguards to the presence of two dolphins near Shark Rock Pier – and seven sharks. “The bathers were temporarily cleared from the water and we raised the shark warning flags after we confirmed there really were sharks, but people were allowed to swim close to the shore.”

A spokesperson said this was the first time shark warning flags had been raised at Hobie Beach.

[source]

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Beaches Reopen After Fatal Attack


Beaches in Cape Town, South Africa have reopened after being closed for two days when a man from Zimbabwe was killed by a shark at Fish Hoek beach.

The man was attacked by a great white shark while around 300 ft off shore on Tuesday.
An official for Cape Town released a statement saying that “although the beaches have been declared safe, both Shark Spotting and lifesaving services will continue.” He added that visitors to the beach should remain in groups and go no further than waist deep in the ocean.

Several eye witnesses viewed the attack on Tuesday. Swimmer Kyle Johnston spoke to a Cape Town newspaper, saying: “We looked at the walkway and saw people waving towels at us, then we looked further out to sea and saw what looked like blood, and a man’s leg come up.”

This was the second fatal shark attack on the same beach since 2004, when an elderly women died when she was attack by a great white shark while swimming.

[source]

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Deadly Shark Attack at South Africa Beach!


A swimmer was attacked and killed by a shark at Fish Hoek beach near Cape Town.

A search was underway to locate the swimmer, but nothing so far.

The victim was a white male, between 32 and 38 years old. The identity of the victim is still unknown.

Twitter users also confirmed the attack.

“Holy sh*t, we just saw a GIGANTIC shark eat what looked like a person right in front of our house in fishhoek. Unbelievable,” wrote skabenga.

Bathers have been warned to be on the lookout for great white sharks which traditionally cruise this stretch of the coast at this time of year.

[source]

UPDATE: The victim of Tuesday’s unfortunate attack was Lloyd Skinner, 37, an engineer from Harare, Zimbabwe, and UCT MBA graduate.

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Another South Africa “Nip”


Simon Bruce, 20, was bitten on the foot by a shark at Port Alfred in the Eastern Cape on Tuesday morning. He sustained five bites in his left foot, three of which are “quite big and deep” and required stitches.

Bruce was walking out into the sea at about 8:30. He was no more than chest deep when he felt a bump on his foot. He didn’t feel the bite at all.

Then he felt something rub against the top of his legs and assumed right away it was a shark.

He said he didn’t see the shark at all and immediately headed back to the beach. While he was wading back to shore his foot started to “feel funny” and he realised he had been bitten.

Two friends on the beach wrapped his badly bleeding foot in a towel and took him to a hospital where he received a tetanus shot, the bite wounds were disinfected and stitched, and his foot was bandaged.

[source]

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Shark Attack Victim’s Family Sets The Record Straight


[By Olivia 'OJ' Symcox] The family and girlfriend of shark attack victim Peter James Fraser have set the record straight regarding the facts about the shark attack which occurred in Ponta do Oura last week on Tuesday 22 December. Contrary to reports circulating in the media, Fraser did not lose any limbs, although he did sustain 6 injuries of varying severity from his encounter with the 6 ft shark, which has been tentatively identified as a juvenile Tiger shark.



Fraser, 27, and his girlfriend Nicolene Latsky, were holidaying in the Mozambiquan tourist hotspot of Ponta Do Oura. At approximately 4:30pm on the day of the attack, Fraser was swimming in the bay and caught a wave to shore. As he was exiting the water, he felt something bump his leg. Thinking it was his girlfriend, he thought nothing of it. However, the shark came back at him, biting him on the right knee causing him to fall to his knees in the less than 2 ft of water.



The shark came at him again from his right hand side, biting him beneath the right shoulder and again on his back on the right hand side. The worst of his injuries were sustained when he fought the shark off with both his hands. The shark bit down on his hands, resulting in deep cuts across all of his knuckles on his left hand, almost severing through three tendons on the top of his fingers. His right hand sustained less severe lacerations. Peter then exited the water unassisted, where he was treated by a paramedic who was on holiday at the same location.

Continue reading ‘Shark Attack Victim’s Family Sets The Record Straight’

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Teen Loses Arm & Leg In Shark Attack!


According to TimesLive, a South African teenager has lost a leg and an arm in a shark attack in Ponte de Orca Bay in Mozambique. According to the news report, the teenage boy was airlifted to a hospital in KwaZulu-Natal after the attack on Tuesday afternoon.

Ponte de Orca is a popular beach holiday and diving destination just north of the South African border.

[source]

UPDATE: According to Zigzag, the victim did not lose an arm or leg but was flown by private helicopter to hospital in Richards Bay shortly after the incident.

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