Shark Alert off Kouga beaches
NSRI are urging public caution along the Eastern Cape Coastlines of Oyster Bay, St Francis Bay and Jeffreys Bay.
A whale carcass that washed up on Anne Avenue Beach on the St Francis Bay coastline (originally found floating off-shore of Jeffreys Bay on Wednesday) is believed to have caused a larger than normal shark presence in the area.
On Friday, 28th October, NSRI St Francis Bay trainee crew member Mark White (who is also a saturation diver) and his friend, local Cody Futeran, in their private capacity, assisted Disaster Management who were tasked to remove the whale carcass from the beach.
The whale carcass, of a 15 meter Southern Right Whale, originally located by NSRI St Francis Bay floating off-shore of Jeffreys Bay on Wednesday afternoon, had drifted and beached by Thursday morning at Anne Avenue Beach, St Francis Bay.
Mark and Cody assisted by securing the whale carcass into a bridal and rope and using their private jet-ski they transported end of the rope to the Chokka fishing boat Sparadon (positioned behind the breaker line at Ann Avenue Beach). On the hogh tide Sparadon towed the whale carcass off the beach out to the deep sea where it was released for natural disposal.
Sharks were spotted in the vicinity of the Kromme River and Ann Avenue Beach, off-shore of St Francis Bay, close in-shore, over the past few days and their perceived increased presence is believed to be directly related to the whale carcass that beached on Thursday and which was then subsequently towed out to sea on Friday.
Bathers, paddlers, divers, sail boarders are urged to be cautious.
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