Swimming with sharks

…well, more surfing, really; but despite the remote probabilities that you will be attacked by a shark while hanging ten, cutting waves and catching tubes, there are some beaches in the world where the most notorious predators of the sea tend to frequent more often than others.

The coast of South Africa from Cape Town to Durban is all too well known for its gangs of great whites that roam the shorelines.
A recent shark attack (by not one but two great whites) at Jeffrey’s Bay, a famous and well used stretch for Pro surfers has prompted interest on just exactly how likely it is to be attacked by a shark.

Thankfully, for any curious parties, the International Shark Attack File (ISAF) has been keeping records of attacks worldwide since the 16th Century; and their findings are encouraging. They say more people are given stitches from a day at the beach due to cuts from seashells than encounters with sharks and that statistically, even more fatal than shark attacks are snakes bites and wasp stings.

A little film called ‘Jaws’, released back in the 70’s has done nothing to assuage the fears of being gobbled up after swimming too far from shore, but recently, groups of scientists have set out to prove that these are not malicious fish and have taken to diving with great whites and other species of sharks unguarded and have lived to tell the tale.

The degree of luck involved in all this will be for you to calculate.