MARINE RESEARCHERS in South Africa had a narrow escape after a three-metre great white shark breached the surface of the sea and leapt into their boat, becoming trapped on deck for more than an hour.
The incident occurred while the team was conducting a shark population study off Seal Island, near Mossel Bay on South Africa's Cape coast. Using sardines as bait to attract the predators around their vessel, Cheetah, the seven-strong crew was able to observe four great whites, renowned locally for bursting through the ocean surface as they prey on seals.
Dorien Schroder, team leader at Oceans Research of Mossel Bay, said that on Monday morning, after more than an hour of shark activity around the vessel, the waters at the Cheetah's stern had been quiet for five minutes. "Next thing I know I hear a splash, and see a white shark breach out of the water from [the] side of the boat hovering, literally, over the crew member who was chumming [throwing food bait] on the port side," she said.
Ms Schroder recounted how she pulled her colleague to safety before the shark, weighing about 500kg, landed on top of the bait and fuel containers. At first, half of its body was outside the boat, but in a panic the shark thrashed its way further on to the vessel’s deck, cutting the fuel lines and damaging equipment before becoming trapped between the containers and the stern. The crew dashed to safety at the bow of the boat.
Ms Schroder subsequently poured water over the shark's gills to keep it alive and another boat was sent out to the Cheetah. A rope from the second vessel was secured around the shark's tail, but repeated efforts to tow the fish into the water failed.
The second vessel towed Cheetahto port with the shark still on deck. A hosepipe was placed in the fish's mouth to ventilate its gills before it was lifted off the boat with a crane and lowered into the water.
Though the shark swam away it was unable to navigate its way out of the harbour and soon beached. The team, along with Oceans Research’s co-director, Enrico Gennari, an expert on great white sharks, then tried unsuccessfully to “walk” the shark back to sea.
Finally they tied ropes to the shark’s tail fin and behind its pectoral fin, and attached these ties to the rescue vessel, which towed the shark out through the harbour mouth. The ropes were then removed and the shark swam away.
Gennari said it was the first time he had heard of a great white shark jumping on to a research vessel. He estimated the predator would have had to have leapt about three metres out of the water to be able to land on the boat. A smaller vessel would have capsized, he said.
Mr Gennari said the incident was almost certainly an accident rather than an attack on the boat by the shark. In the low-visibility conditions of the water the fish could have mistaken the vessel’s shadow for prey, or been disturbed by another shark close by, he said.
"It's all speculation," he said. "But sometimes a shark breaches the surface when it feels another shark underneath it. They [move] like a flying fish and end up several metres away." – ( Guardianservice)