A MISSING fisherman is feared dead after getting attacked by two sharks while dragging in a huge haul of sardines in South Africa.
Two friends quickly arrived at the location where the 37-year-old vanished, but as the fins of two other creatures, believed to be Bronze Whalers, approached, they withdrew.
The terrifying attack occurred on a Friday afternoon at a beach well-known among divers and surfers in Mfazazana, Kwa-Zulu Natal province, situated 60 miles south of Durban.
A spokesperson for the National Sea Rescue Institute confirmed that a 37-year-old local man had gone missing “after a shark incident involving three local fishermen”.
They said: “We and the SA police and the Water Policing and Diving Services unit were told a man disappeared under the water after a shark surfaced where he was netting.
“It appears that at least one friend attempted to intervene but it is believed that he was confronted by at least 2 sharks in the surf and he retreated to the shoreline.
“It is believed the sharks were feeding on a school of sardines at the time. A large scale search is underway but so far no sign of the missing man has been found”.
In the last 25 years, 37 people have been killed by sharks off the coast of South Africa – with the last being restauranteur Kimon Bisogno, 39, in September 2022.
The pizza shop boss was swimming in Plettenberg Bay when a Great White attacked her while husband Diego Milesi, 40, and daughter Luna, 5, were on the beach.
And in June of the same year, married dad and stockbroker Bruce Wolov, 63, – a snorkeller and long distance swimmer – was attacked and killed by a Great White in the same bay.
The year before Robert Frauestein, 38, was killed by a suspected Great White at Chinsta, Eastern Cape, but only his bodyboard with huge bite marks was found.
Each year billions of sardines run 1000 mile up the coast from Cape Town to Mozambique in shoals up to 4 miles long and 1.5 miles wide and 90ft deep.
Tens of thousands of dolphins lay in wait for them and round them up into bait balls 60ft in diameter and 20 feet deep and then attack followed by hungry sharks.
The feeding frenzy occurs between May and July and it is the biggest annual migration in the world as the sardines as they head for cold water to spawn.
Charter boat skipper Walter Bernadis runs a company African Watersports at Port St Johns on the Wild Coast in Eastern Cape that takes tourists out to watch.
He said: “When the sardines are running it is on fire out there and you can see hundreds of sharks tearing into the sardines in a feeding frenzy like no other.
“A photographer with us Sergio Lucas got these amazing shots of a bronze whaler shark doing a somersault over the top of a bait ball as it feasted on sardines.
“There are millions and millions heading past us on the cold Agulhas current but hundreds of thousands never make it thanks to the waiting dolphins and sharks.
“We call it the Greatest Shoal on Earth and it never fails to deliver” he said.
Local communities who live on or near the coast along the shoal route flock to the coast in their thousands with large nets they fill every day to feed their villages.
Bolivian photographer Sergio Lucas, 31, who captured images of the shark leaping from the water said: “It was just insane with sharks attacking from every angle.
“The water was turned into a huge froth and I will never forget it” he said.
With regards to the death of the fisherman respected skipper Walter said: “It is unusual for a fisherman to be taken from the beach when netting the sardines.
“But wherever sharks are feeding on a bait ball it is a danger and the last time I knew of someone bitten in one was a British man who scuba dived into one.
“That was against all advice and he got chewed up but he survived” he said.
Great White’s also turn up at the feast but they are not there for the sardines but the tens of thousands of dolphins and seals that follow the shoal up the coast.
