Days around Fish Hoek beach = numbered.

Environmental planning authorities in sleepy Fish Hoek on the False Bay coast are reconsidering the installation of an exclusion net across the bay adjacent to the town, to try stave off the regular loitering of Great White sharks near the popular beach front. The last time such a scheme was tabled was in 2006, just two years after the fatal mauling of 77-year-old Tyna Webb, who was swimming in the bay when she was attacked.

The exclusion net works a little differently to the ones that are used in Kwa-Zulu Natal to protect their beaches. The marine environmental impact is minimal, and the nets are not species-specific, as the ones up north are. The 355-meter trial net will likely be installed this year, once the proper licences have been granted by the local sub-council and the City of Cape Town, with a more permanent installation to follow if the trial is successful.

With three attacks in the last eight years, Fish Hoek beach is considered unsafe for recreational activities, and hence the local tourist economy is heavily affected. British citizen and Cape Town resident, Michael Cohen was attacked in September last year, with a shark biting off his right leg above the knee and part of his left leg below the knee.

[Source: News 24]