Durban - Five people claim they were bitten by a “baby” shark while swimming at Durban’s North Beach on Sunday.
But the KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board quickly denied the claims.
“I can assure people one shark cannot bite five people. I have never heard of such an attack from sharks,” said spokesman, Mike Anderson-Reade.
“I checked the shark nets twice in the morning. They were perfect. This is not a shark or baby shark. It could be a sea pike, a fish or sharp debris floating in the water.”
News of the incident spread on social network sites, attracting hundreds of comments. Facebook poster Abigail Ray said she was at the Bay of Plenty beach at about noon when everyone was told to leave the water.
“Apparently they suspected a baby shark because the bites were puncture wounds; the people were all right though,” she wrote.
Anderson-Reade said he did not see the injuries but from what he had heard they were minor cuts. None of the people who claimed they were bitten were taken to hospital and neither were their names taken down by volunteers who had given them first aid treatment.
Anderson-Reade said he had flown over the beach in a helicopter on Sunday morning between uMhlanga and the Durban harbour mouth.
“I could see a lot of debris in the water from the recent storms. Pieces of wood, logs, trees and debris were scattered along the shoreline.”
He said he had to ask the air traffic controller to allow him to circle a particular area where he thought he had seen a body floating in the water.
But when he got closer he saw it was in fact a log.
Police said lifeguards had searched the vicinity for a baby shark but had not seen any. Police said bathers went back into the water five minutes later.
BBM and Twitter had dozens of messages as news spread of the nature of the bites.
Some posters claimed it was small cuts on the heel and shin area. Surfers claimed it could have been a barracuda that bit them.
Strauss Human said on Facebook he realised locals wanted their beaches back but using sharks as scare tactics was “just really bad vibes!”
Charlie Ridgway joked on Facebook: “No Shark attack until February. It’s cricket season now!”
Metro police spokesman, Eugene Msomi, said there were no official reports made at the beachfront police station but people did come in with rumours that a shark was seen in the water.
eThekwini Municipality spokes-man, Thabo Mofokeng, was unavailable for comment.
Daily News