Categories: Report

Giving 2nd Beach a chance

You couldn’t really design a more beautiful beach than 2nd Beach in Port St. Johns.

The little left-hander breaking into the cove on the south side of the beach. The idyllic little lagoon filled with splashing children. Cows on the beach. A really nice flat bathing area and another closed river mouth. Then into Ben Dekker’s own little beach surrounded by rocks, and finally out towards the infamous Gap.

But this is where it gets interesting. The point at the south is called “Shark Point”. The point at The Gap, is also called “Shark Point”. The next headland under the St. Hermes lighthouse, is called “Shark Point”. And there is another one, called “Shark Point” a little further away. 4 “Shark Points”!

And a string of shark attacks to go with them. Since the first fatal attack in 2006, there has been an almost methodical repeat of tragic attacks, annually. December and January mainly, one in March. Mostly a single big shark – either a tiger or a zambezi. Almost all in the exact same place, in the cove in the south of the bay.

There have been exceptions to these rules. One victim was clearly attacked by more than one shark, and they all appeared quite small. Small bite marks were found all over the rest of mans body. His upper legs were completely removed, he was devoured. He strayed too far off the sandbank and towards the deadly little cove, into a channel, and was taken.

The other victim was a well-experienced lifeguard, on the backline, on his kneeboard. According to witnesses, the lifeguard saw the shark, and stopped paddling. The shark circled, and in what can be construed as a premeditated attack, knocked the lifeguard off his board – nothing was found left of him. That shark knew about human flesh.

So in hindsight, and with the benefit of many anecdotes, opinions and testimonials – it can be quite plausibly taken as fact, that one single shark could be a common factor in most of the attacks.

The rogue shark theory has been bandied about on all continents where shark attacks occur. And generally has not been accepted.

However, in waters away from here, where the Natal Sharks Board have culled entire populations, and further north, where subsistence fishers have cleaned resident Zambezis and Tigers out for miles, we can deduce some things. Sharks take up residence in an area, and generally can be found in the same spots, over and over. It is the frequency and diversity of these behaviours that are yet known, but one thing is for sure, at a spot in Mozambique called Paindane, there is a group of 6 at last count, very bad mooded zambezis, that are always there. They are the main attraction for the many many scuba divers that visit the area, and the local anglers are not allowed to catch them. Or they would have. The Chinese are buying shark fins illegally EVERY single day up there.

So, mixing these facts with well-founded and rounded speculation, we could have a single rogue shark on our hands. He knows that in December and January, hundreds of people enter the water every day. Very easy pickings. He also knows that out of season it’s not really worth patrolling his favourite summer time feasting spot. He is also attracted to 2nd beach by mamalian blood as the sangomas sacrifice goats in the shorebreak. There is cow dung all over the beach, that is backwashed into the ocean with the ties. There are regular drownings, three days after the last drowning, there was still no sign of the body.

An evaluation of a single live tiger shark, to the scuba and tourism sector, has been set at 2.65 million US $ dollars! Alive, not dead. So what is the value of this single rogue Zambezi? And how do we deal with him? He doesn’t stick out in a line-up of similair suspects!

So it was with these sentiments driving us, that we decided to go down to Port St. Johns are surf 2nd Beach. We also have an appointment with the municipality to install an exclusion net at the ideal bathing section on the sand bank. This will also help stop the drownings, three people (two kids), have drowned at this very same beach here in the last three weeks.

This is certainly, and without compare, is the most dangerous beach in the world.

Special thanks to and

The Jungle Monkey