Shark Attack

a big shoal of sardines were spotted just south of 'Mkabati yesterday--as amatter of fact, an English photographer, Tony White, was attacked and severely bitten on his arm by a shark when diving off a ski-boat and was subsequently airlifted to Margate Hospital--hundreds of dolphin and thousands of birds are also in the area.

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Shark attacks Brit filming sardine run in KZN

June 03 2002 at 11:37PM



By Barbara Cole

A visiting British film crew shooting the famous sardine run got some dramatic unscripted footage on Monday when one of the team was bitten by a copper shark.

Luckily, a Natal Sharks Board plane with a police paramedic on board just happened to be in the area to pluck the victim to safety.

It is the first recorded incident of a human being attacked by a copper shark - they are between 1,5m and 2,5m long - but Graham Charter, the Sharks Board chief executive, who was on board the plane, said it was possible that the shark had misidentified its prey because of all the frenzied activity going on in the sea at Mkhambati, between Port Edward and Port St Johns.

Tony White, aged about 50, who was bitten above the elbow and had a large flap of skin and tissue ripped from the bone, was still in theatre at Margate Hospital when The Mercury telephoned on Monday night.

White and three colleagues were at Mkhambati and snorkelling with the sardines when the sharks suddenly appeared. His friends were able to climb into their boat, but White was attacked. His friends managed to get him to shore and bandaged his wounds.

A Natal Sharks Board plane was on a flight to determine the position of the sardines when a call for help came in. The pilot managed to land the plane in uneven terrain, pick up the bleeding man and fly him to Margate.

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