After 13 years of watching over Cape Town’s most popular beaches, Shark Spotters remains the primary shark safety strategy adopted by the City of Cape Town, promoting beach safety for countless locals and tourists alike. But is the programme keeping on top of its game and achieving its objectives of balancing the needs of people […]

Bronze whalers (Carcharhinus brachyurus), or bronzies as they are known locally, are a common species in the coastal and shelf waters around South Africa. They are relatively large, reaching a maximum length of just over 3 metres, and feed on a range of prey, including teleosts, catilaginous fish and cephalopods. They are most frequently seen […]

There is nothing false about the sense of security provided by the Fish Hoek beach shark exclusion net. The term “shark net” is used loosely to describe many mesh-based shark attack mitigation measures in place around the world. However, it is important to realise that “not all shark nets are created equally” and in fact […]

Large, predatory sharks occupy the top of ocean food chains, where they play important roles in maintaining diverse and healthy ecosystems. The loss of these predators can therefore have significant impacts on ecosystems. Photo © Wildestanimal | Shutterstock For a long time broadnose sevengill sharks have occupied the apex of the food chain alongside the more famous […]

The 2017/18 summer season yielded an all-time low in the number of white shark sightings recorded by Shark Spotters across Cape Town beaches. Photo © Lars Jockumsen It has been an eerily quiet year on the white shark scene in False Bay, both in the summer months inshore, and over winter at Seal Island. During […]

It seems like everywhere you look nowadays there is a new gadget or gizmo on the market “guaranteed” to keep you safe from shark bites. Using everything from electric currents to chilli powder, clever marketing has got nervous ocean lovers reaching for their wallets and spending stacks of cash on products with very little evidence […]