{"id":10258,"date":"2012-04-25T16:30:53","date_gmt":"2012-04-25T14:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/04\/shark-wary-s-african-surfers-say-chum-is-no-buddy\/"},"modified":"2012-04-25T16:30:53","modified_gmt":"2012-04-25T14:30:53","slug":"shark-wary-s-african-surfers-say-chum-is-no-buddy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/shark-wary-s-african-surfers-say-chum-is-no-buddy\/","title":{"rendered":"Shark-wary S.African surfers say chum is no buddy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Wendell Roelf<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

CAPE TOWN, April 25<\/span> (Reuters) – Luring great white sharks
\nwith a smelly mixture of fish and oil in South Africa’s False
\nBay has triggered a wave of anger, with surfers and swimmers
\ncalling for a ban on the practice following a fatal shark attack
\na week ago.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

A growing attraction over the past several years in one of
\nAfrica’s biggest tourist destinations, Cape Town, has been
\nunderwater dives with sharks, with operators clouding waters
\nwith a bloody mixture called “chum” to attract the predators.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Many marine experts doubt if chumming changes the behaviour
\nof sharks in the region, which include great white sharks as
\nlong as mini-buses that weigh upwards of four tonnes.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

But the practice has rattled surfers, swimmers and kayakers,
\nespecially after a suspected great white shark ripped the leg
\noff of David Lilienfeld, 20, last week, killing the champion
\nbody-boarder..<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Data shows since 2000 there have been 10 shark attacks
\naround Cape Town’s coast, five of them fatal, including
\nLilienfeld.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“This is an animal that kills people when it comes into
\nconfrontation with people. So let’s not make them aggressive.
\nLet’s not dangle bait in front of them and stuff like that,” Cas
\nCollier, a former big wave world champion, said at Surfer’s
\nCorner, Muizenberg beach in the bay.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Sharks are drawn to the area to feed on the large number of
\nseals at Seal Island, a rocky outcrop in the middle of False
\nBay. Once hunted for sport trophies, great whites have been a
\nprotected species in South African waters since 1991.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“It goes without saying that chumming in False Bay must be
\nbanned until we have a better understanding of shark behaviour
\nand the potential for habituation,” said surfer John Gasson in a
\npublished letter.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Wendell Roelf CAPE TOWN, April 25 (Reuters) – Luring great white sharks with a smelly mixture of fish and oil in South Africa’s False Bay has triggered a wave of anger, with surfers and swimmers calling for a ban on the practice following a fatal shark attack a week ago. A growing attraction over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-10258","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10258\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}