ABSTRACT
Shark attacks attract considerable publicity and have affected a number of regions around the world. In only a small number of locations, however, has public reaction led to socioeconomic pressures on the local tourism and hospitality industry that resulted in physical intervention to reduce the risk of shark attack. One of the earliest examples was in the early 1930s off the beaches of Sydney, Australia, where shark attacks had led to a lack of confidence in bathing, and in 1934 the New South Wales Government set up a Shark Menace Advisory Committee to investigate the best methods of protecting bathers (Coppleson and Goadby 1988). It has long been acknowledged that the psychological impact of shark attack outweighs that of other forms of accident, such as those involving motor vehicles, despite the fact that the latter greatly outnumber the former (Davies 1961). In South Africa’s infamous “Black December” of 1957 and during the subsequent Easter holidays, shark attacks had a substantial effect on the south coast of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), a 160 km stretch of coastline between Durban and Port Edward, where the local economy is almost entirely dependent on tourism. Three attacks on bathers in waist-deep water occurred in 11 days spanning Christmas 1957 at the adjacent holiday resorts of Uvongo and Margate (Davies 1964; Wallett 1983). The first two incidents were fatal, while in the third a teenage girl lost
CONTENTS
14.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 567 14.2 Methods for Reducing Risk of Shark Attack .................................................................568
