Local surfer Craig Kember said seeing the odd fin break the water or feeling bumps beneath his board was nothing new, but in the past three months he had seen a number of large sharks in the water at various surf spots between Westbrook and Ballito, North Coast Courier report.
“There has always been a lot of activity in the water along our coastline, but recently I have spotted quite a few decent-sized sharks here on Ballito’s coast,” said Kember, who has been surfing since the age of six.
With 31 years of surfing experience, Kember is no stranger to the sea or the predators lurking beneath its surface.
“I have had quite a few shark encounters while surfing and I saw a large Zambezi at Bog Bay (near La Montagne) not too long ago, but my most recent encounter was about two weeks ago when I saw a very big fin clearly at Westbrook beach,” said Kember.
Jaco Steenhuizen, a 27-year-old surfer on holiday from Langebaan in the Western Cape, said he saw a large Zambezi shark while he was surfing at Willard beach in Ballito.
“I was actually just sitting on my board with my feet in the water when I saw a fin break the surface about five metres away from me and it disappeared as quickly as it appeared,” said Steenhuizen, who added he has surfed in the Cape his whole life and is not too worried about sharing the sea with sharks.
Mike Andersen-Reid, head of operations at the KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board (KZNSB), said a number of factors could be behind the increase in shark sightings along North Coast beaches.
