South African tour operators are being urged to end the popular tourist pursuit of cage diving to watch sharks, following a considerable increase in the number of shark attacks in the region.
This year, more attacks have been reported in South Africa than in the past decade and tour companies operating cage diving facilities have been blamed for the increase, by both survivors of attacks and environmentalists.
One survivor – surfer Craig Bovim, who was attacked by a great white – has set up the Shark Concern Group (SCG).
Bovim believes that the operators who offer cage diving in ‘Shark Alley’, a 60-mile stretch of water south of Cape Town, are responsible for the increase in attacks on swimmers and surfers due to their baiting practice of putting a mix of blood and meat into the ocean to attract sharks.
However, operators claim that the controversy over cage diving is just the latest in a series of misconceptions about diving.
Reon Coetzee of Dive South Africa, which offers shark tours, said that cage operators put less bait in the water per day to attract sharks than anglers do.
