A dead smooth-hound shark wrapped in a blue plastic bag was discovered by passersby along Beach Road, Strand early on Monday morning (8 January). It appeared to have no obvious signs of injuries or bleeding.
Despite an initial outcry on social media, where concerns were levelled that it was a case of animal cruelty, the more reasonable explanation from Lisa Starr, founder of Helderberg Ocean Awareness Movement, was that the shark could have died of natural causes which resulted in it being washed onto the beach. She believes it was picked up by the City of Cape Town’s beach cleaning crew and put aside for collection by refuse trucks.
“It’s very sad to see. It could have washed in and death may be natural or been caught and then not made it. There could be many scenarios,” Starr related.
“They get very stressed when caught and, in some cases, there’s only a 50% chance of survival after being caught and released. It was clearly picked up by the Extented Public Works Programme workers on the beach, which explains why it was in the blue plastic bag. It’s sad to see and I’m starting to question fishing.”
A number of locals also expressed sadness and even disgust at the incident, while others countered that fishing was not illegal and that, in fact, many sharks make it alive upon release.
Annually, dozens of holidaymakers and tourists make their way to the False Bay coastline over the summer with the specific intention of catching a shark.
In the past few months there have been a number of sharks caught and released by avid fishermen along the Strand and Gordon’s Bay beaches. One of the most recent incidents was at Bikini Beach, where a fisherman was filmed hooking a large bronzie, which he fought with for quite a while before bringing it in to shore.
The video went viral on local Facebook groups and racked in thousands of views. The shark was 220 cm and weighed 152 kg. The video also showed the shark being safely released.
