By Talea Miller and Candice Bailey
Experts said on Tuesday that shark attacks on humans were extremely rare and that the theory that Monday's attack on a teenage surfer was linked to chumming was misinformed.
Sixteen-year-old surfer John Paul "JP" Andrew's leg was bitten off during an attack in False Bay on Monday by a shark tentatively identified as a great white. He is a Grade 11 pupil at Reddam House in Steenberg and on Tuesday was in a critical, but stable condition at Constantiaberg Medi-Clinic.
Leonard Compagno of the Shark Research Centre at the Iziko South African Museum said humans were not a choice food source for sharks.
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'Sharks are largely not interested in us' "Getting attacked by a shark is like getting hit by lightning, only rarer," he said. "Sharks are largely not interested in us and very seldom is there an incident when a human is actually eaten."
In the past 10 years there have been at least seven shark attacks in the Cape area, two fatal, according to Geremy Cliff, research head at the Natal Sharks Board.
"We have to start accepting that great whites have been swimming in the False Bay and Cape areas for thousands of years," Cliff said.
Humans invaded sharks' domain every day, usually without incident, Compagno said. "There are probably hundreds of white sharks circulating around False Bay."
Following Monday's attack, there were accusations from the surfer community that chumming boats, which use a ground fish mixture to attract sharks for observation, were to blame for the attack.
'The great white has a big price on its head' Compagno said commercial fishing boats and natural chum sites attract sharks more than chumming boats.
As the chum is carried away from the boats by the current it is also diluted, Compagno said, so it is not attracting sharks to swimming areas.
Chum boat operator and former shark hunter turned researcher and conservationist, Theo Ferreira, said: "Shark operators are operating nowhere near the bathing area.
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