Thu, 11 February 2016

The longboarder in these pics appears oblivious to these sharks all around her yesterday. One passed directly beneath! Jean Tresfon was our eye in the sky, shooting from his gyrocopter over False Bay.

Jean Tresfon was on a flight yesterday morning when he spotted a longboarder surfing at Strandfontein right near a group of trek net fishermen probably going for yellowtail. Most surfers would not surf the sharky area, even without such fishing activity.

"It was an interesting flight this morning, which ended with me spending 20 minutes watching the shark activity at Muizenberg/Strandfontein. Lots of surfers were out at Surfer's Corner, with no great whites around, but lots of baitfish shoals and plenty of bronze whalers, threshers, hammerheads, rays and dolphins.

"One lone longboarder out at Strandfontein was unwisely sitting at the backline right alongside (probably 100m away) from where the trek netters (fishermen using treknets for yellowtail) were busy. On the first pass, I saw five large sharks within a few hundred metres of the longboarder (who I think was female but hard to tell for sure). As I watched, several of the sharks passed within metres of the longboarder, with one even swimming right underneath her."

Tresfon says that she didn't see the shark beneath her because she was busy looking up at Tresfon flying above her, and even seemed irritated. She had not made the connection!

"The surfer seem oblivious to the presence of the sharks even though it must have been pretty obvious that something was going on with me circling overhead for about five minutes," he said.

It appears she was not very good either, as she didn't ride a wave, and when she did paddle for one, she fell off. Not that her ability is a problem. But you have to wonder whether the risk was worth it?

"At one point she even fell into the water while one of the sharks was nearby. I was nervous for her sake as she spent a lot of time sitting on the board with her bare feet dangling in the water but the sharks were not interested in the slightest. Just goes to show that the sharks really are not interested in humans and in the clean water there was no problem with mistaken identity."