SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
A brand-new,$ 170 million vacation destination in South Africa is in a dispute over how to stop its customers from getting attacked by sharks.
The first Club Med resort, which is located northeast of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal state on the west coast of the country, is accused of using fish nets while visiting the beach.
According to Bloomberg, experts predicted that the nets would remove a lot of fish, animals, rays, turtles, and parrots.
Great white sharks, including fish, make up the majority of South Africa’s sea ecosystem, but local officials have failed to come up with a strategy that protects both swimmers and animals.
According to the International Shark Attack File, which is affiliated with the Florida Museum in the US, there were six fatal fish problems in the nation between 2012 and 2021, and 23 non-fatal wounds were reported.
According to researchers, traps are an archaic technique that trap and kills sharks rather than serving as a challenge.
They claim they have tried other options, such as using drones to help fish spotters, but they were “dismissed out of hand.”
An evaluation of the site’s net effect was contributed by Ryan Daly, a professor with the Durban-based Oceanographic Research Institute.
He questioned why they didn’t take into account contemporary methods used in places like Australia, where rescuers use drones to monitor harmful rip currents to look out for fish.
The people beach at the Indian Ocean next to the new Club Med Tinley Manor is open, but as many as 1000 guests are expected to use it when the hotel opens later this year.
The KwaDukuza Municipality will have the final say on whether to place baskets, and it said a decision has not yet been made.
” We trust the clear, scientific method being pursued by relevant authorities and independent experts to find the most sensible and responsible answer, and to provide healthy swimming for both local and foreign visitors to the nation,” Club Med, the European resort company, said in a statement.
The responsibility is to give public safety and marine conservation priority because both protecting people and the environment are two separate tasks.
No security technique, including nets, spotters, or uavs, was fully effective, according to Oceans Research Institute director Enrico Gennari.
Although drones are effective for locating great white sharks and cat fish, they are less accurate for locating deep-swimming bulls fish.
He claimed traps endangered marine life, though.
” Are they dangerous?” Yes, Gennari said, “because they are meant to remain dangerous.” They are meant to harm both fish and other aquatic species, according to the statement.
According to the researchers, 416 fish were killed off the coast of KwaZulu-Natal in 2025 single using related nets and ranges.
Shark tactics vary.
Different areas of the nation have adopted various shark-related techniques.
While KwaZulu-Natal has used baskets, athletes rely on fish lookouts at another big holiday beaches, like Muizenberg in Cape Town and Plettenberg Bay on the Garden Route.
Sharpshooters warn swimmers when a fish approaches and scan the waterways off beaches.
In comparison, there were 20 deadly problems in Australia over the same time period, including three in Hawaii and eight near Réunion, an island off Africa’s east coast.
60 people were reportedly killed by the bass worldwide. The most hazardous species are bulls, cat, and great white sharks.
According to conservationists, these small figures show that sharks have been wrongfully demonized and that they pose little threat to people.
Shark problems are extremely rare, according to the World Wildlife Fund, but sharks are found in all the world’s oceans. You are more likely to get struck by lightning than a shark, according to the statement.
The Telegraph, London
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