Cape Town – The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has said white sharks have not completely disappeared from the False Bay coast.
Responding to the City of Cape Town and its shark spotting programme’s statement that they had not spotted any great whites over the past 18 months, the department yesterday said white shark cage diving operators had spotted sharks.
The department’s provincial spokesperson, Zolile Nqayi, yesterday said: “We can state that there have been white sharks spotted by the operators in Seal Island.
"The department has a monitoring programme in place to assess the operational aspects of the cage diving industry, as established under the white shark cage diving policy and associated regulations.
“If white sharks may be showing indicators of displacement within False Bay, there may be a need to evaluate the general coastal ecosystem health within False Bay, in addition to
stochastic localised events.
“Under the recent white shark cage diving allocation process, the department has reaffirmed the need to monitor aspects that contribute to maintain sustainability in the
ecotourism industries and develop these initiatives.”
The Shark Spotters’ applied research programme has been monitoring white shark activity and behavioural ecology in False Bay since 2004.
The city on Wednesday said that from 2010 to 2016, spotters
had recorded an average of 205 great white shark sightings a year at their operating beaches during spring and summer.
However, the City said, in 2018, the total number of shark sightings recorded fell to only 50, and this year there had not been a single confirmed white shark sighting by the spotters.
Marine biologist Alison Towner, who does extensive research on great white sharks, said there could be a number of factors contributing to the change in shark sightings.
“It is very likely a combination
of factors impacting white shark distribution, including, environmental, prey species removal, industrial overfishing, pollution as well as
other threats.”