Swimming continues to be banned at some Umhlanga beaches after sharks were spotted feeding of the carcass of a humpback whale that eventually washed up on the shore near the Umhlanga Lighthouse on Wednesday.
KwaZulu Natal Sharks Board acting operations manager Wayne Harrison said they had spotted the humpback carcass on Tuesday far out at sea.
“It has clearly broken down now and moved a lot faster out to shore. The buoyancy of the whale is due to its blubber. As expected there is a lot of marine life following the carcass. The main predators are Zambezi shark, great whites and tiger sharks that were already feeding off it,” said Mr Harrison.
He said they had decided to ban bathing in the interest of safety.
“These predators follow the carcass right onto shore or as close as they can manage. It is just not safe for anyone to be in the water nearby or even on the shore around the carcass. The predators go into an absolute frenzy,” said Mr Harrison.
He said authorities were already making arrangements for the difficult job of having the carcass removed.
“I cannot reiterate how dangerous it is for people to enter into the water in these conditions. Please just don’t do it. I have previously personally seen this feeding frenzy where the sharks literally role on the shore feasting on the carcass,” said Mr Harrison.
Umhlanga Scuba diving instructor Vinayak Maharaj managed to capture some footage of the feeding frenzy.
He said they had been diving on Tuesday afternoon when they noticed the unusually excessive presence of predators in the water.
“We came up as quickly as safely possible and got onto our boat to witness this amazing sight. We circled the carcass and that was when we saw the actual number of sharks that included black tips, white tips, bull sharks, tigers – it was amazing. An absolute feeding frenzy. But the stench was just too much for us to handle so we came back to shore,” said Mr Maharaj.
