The deadliest beach in the world is Second Beach, in Port St Johns, Eastern Cape, where an Austrian tourist was killed at the weekend in a shark attack .
Port St Johns had the highest number of shark-related deaths in the world.
Eight people have been killed by sharks at this Wild Coast holiday destination in the past five years.
Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism CEO Luxolo Rubushe said that Port St Johns had the highest number of shark-related deaths in the world.
The KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board says it’s unknown why a popular Eastern Cape beach has experienced a spate of shark attacks in recent years. The KZN Sharks Board’s Jeremy Cliff says Zambezi sharks, also known as Bull sharks, have been blamed for most of the incidents including the most recent one.
Port St Johns resident Cat Yazbek told City Press the bather, a 72-year-old Austrian man, was taken by a shark at the beach shortly before 15:00 on Saturday. The victim was cooling off in shallow water just a few metres from the crowded beach when he was dragged into the sea.
Beachgoers, including his wife, watched in horror. “The person is dead. The body is floating round the point. It’s horrible,” said Yazbek.
Siphesihle Mangcotywa, 26, said the man had been swimming with three others.
“Suddenly people started screaming and running towards the shore and the next thing there was just blood in the water next to the man. He did not even scream but tried to swim towards the shore. His three companions were about a metre away and watched helplessly. They also ran to the shore,” he said.
The man’s body washed up about an hour and half later.
Craig Lambinon of the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) said the species of the shark that attacked the man was not known.
The beach reportedly has no lifeguards because Port St Johns municipality did not renew their contracts.
On Christmas Day 2012, the notorious but highly popular beach – one of the jewels of the former Transkei’s Wild Coast – claimed its seventh victim since the current spate of fatal attacks began five years ago.
Liya Sibili, 22, from Ntsimbini, a rural village about 35km inland from Port St Johns, was taken by a shark in waist-deep water at Second Beach at around 16:20.
Only his bathing trunks were recovered despite a three-day search for his body. On March 2013, 39-year-old Fundile Nodumla survived an attack at the same beach.
The Daily Saffa 