MOSSEL BAY NEWS - Mossel Bay resident Kobus Maritz has had another close encounter with a Great White shark - for the second time in six years.
On 28 June 2008, his surfski was chomped in the Mossel Bay harbour. This time he had set off on Saturday 22 November, at approximately 06:45, for his regular early morning exercise.
He made his way to the Point before going out to Diaz. At Diaz he made the turn in the corner and rowed past the beach at the Diaz hotel and on towards the jetty.
He was approximate 50 meters from the shoreline, just behind the breakwater, when the Great White attacked from behind, taking off at least half a meter of his surfski.
The shark attacked from the right hand side coming from the open sea and the velocity and impact of the attack had swung the surfski transversely.
Reacted instinctively
"Being the second time, I immediately knew it was a shark attack. I battled as best I could to keep the surfski upright and to stay on top, but I came off the vessel and that is when I saw the approximately three meter big Great White shark under water. The water was crystal clear on Saturday morning.
"I knew I had to remain calm and still in the water. I went as close as I could get to the vessel and remained still for at least a minute. Then I realised the surfski was becoming unstable and taking in water.
"It was hard going to get to the shore, but I moved instinctively. Once on the beach, I used a beach walker's cellphone to call my wife," Kobus told the Mossel Bay Advertiser.
"It is still very unreal. I have been enjoying the surfski for at least 15 years; it is a part of my lifestyle," he added.
Attacks in past six years
Other incidents of shark attacks have taken place in the six years since the first shark attack on Kobus. In two cases, the attacks were fatal when Tim van Heerden died off Plett's Lookout on 28 August 2011, and Gerhard van Zyl succumbed to his wounds when he was attacked on 29 August 2009. Luke Parker (10 December 2008 off Plettenberg Bay), Paul Buckley (7 July 2009 off Jongensfontein), Clinton Nelson (29 May 2011 off Plettenberg Bay), and Jacques Mostert (7 June 2012) were the other shark victims along the Garden Route coastline.
Sharks are present virtually everywhere in South Africa. This country has been the first to protect great whites and the first to invent the controversial 'shark cage diving'. This new popular tourist attraction has indeed been blamed for recent shark attacks, because it encourages sharks to come closer to shore than they normally do and to see humans as a potential source of food, despite extensive research working hard to prove otherwise.
Holiday beach users are best advised to steer clear of Seal Island and to heed the call of the on-duty life guards that will be deployed to all Blue Flag beaches in the greater Mossel Bay area.
ARTICLE AND PHOTO: NICKEY LE ROUX, MOSSEL BAY ADVERTISER JOURNALIST
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