On Monday, the day Lakeside teenager John Paul Andrew was attacked by a Great White shark at Muizenberg beach, a ragged tooth shark pup was caught by an angler further up the beach.
The hook was cut out of its mouth and it was left to die on the beach, just one of the estimated 100 million sharks, rays and skates killed every year around the world, mostly by long-line fishermen and the finning industry.
Lesley Rochat, founder of the Afri-Oceans Conservation Alliance, said it was a tough day for shark conservation. She said the attack on the young surfer, while devastating for him and his family, made people rush to find someone or something to blame.
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"Shark attacks are incredibly rare - there is more chance of being struck by lightning - but the perception of sharks as man-eating predators persists."
'Shark attacks are incredibly rare' Rochat said that close to where John Paul had been bitten, she saw a half eaten seal bobbing in the water.
"It was obviously a case of mistaken identity with the shark mistaking him for a seal."
Rochat has been fighting for ragged tooth sharks to get the same protection afforded to Great White sharks.
She was instrumental in getting Maxine, the ragged tooth shark from the Two Oceans Aquarium, released at Struisbaai near Cape Agulhas recently.
There has been no sign of Maxine as yet but but no news is good news, according to Rochat.
She said that the first of the satellite tags fitted to Maxine was expected to pop up on June 15 which would give researchers a fix on her position.
If it popped up earlier it would mean either the tag had malfunctioned or that Maxine had come to grief - been killed by an angler or eaten by a bigger shark.
Before being captured, Maxine had already had two brushes with death.
She was trapped in shark nets in KwaZulu-Natal and later caught by an angler who contacted the aquarium.
Rochat said that about the time Maxine was released, a 167kg ragged tooth shark caught by an angler in a catch and release competition died while waiting to be weighed.
Earlier this month Marine and Coastal Management authorities raided storage facilities in the Cape Town docks and seized 7,3 tons of shark fins valued at about R5-million which were headed for Eastern markets where shark fin soup is regarded as a delicacy. The sharks are thrown back into the sea to drown after their fins have been hacked off.
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