or not, if you were the unfortunate Zimbabwean tourist who happened to get taken by what appears to be a great white shark, on Monday, in Fish Hoek just around the corner from us.
My Bruthafromanothamutha sent me this comment on a previous posting I'd made, obviously to get me to post something new or to let him know I'm still alive...
"I see you were busy the last 24 hrs........
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601116&sid=a7TUi7R6ascY"
In reality, the only involvement from our NSRI base was when we were asked to launch our small boat in the surf zone to see if we could detect any remains of the poor bastard who got taken. That was on Tuesday evening.
Last night, Wednesday, we were supposed to have our monthly base meeting at which the StatCom gives us a run-down of what's happened in the last month, number of rescues, progress with our new base, who's screwing who at head office, etc.
This month, however, Ian was asked by the authorities to meet with the family of the victim, probably to describe what had been done to recover what's left (if anything) of the bloke. I don't envy him the task as it cannot be easy to explain this sort of thing to distraught family members, especially after something like this. "Oh, he was flailing around in the water, people saw him get launched out of the water by the force of the attack, the shark came for him twice, people could see the terror on his face........"...you know what I mean. Ian, though, is the ultimate diplomat and an experienced medical rescue professional and I'm sure, though he would have been choked with emotion, he would have handled it with total dignity and poise, leaving the family with the knowledge that everyone that could, tried their most to save the guy.
What happened was unfortunate and sad, as has been said a million times over on this and previous attacks. Humans, however, do not belong in the ocean and when they do, they become part of the foodchain to some big scary monsters, not just great whites. That's the bottom line and this time the guy was unlucky to be in the wrong place at the wrong time...
7 comments:
Ian - not easy but its what he does - it may be you one day.
To the family - sympathy abounds especially for the wife that watched it....................
DMD - hi there - hehe
While in Durban I visited the Shark Board. Thats where they teach baby sharks how to eat humans....
I remember them telling us about nets and devices they use to protect the beaches. Dont they have that in your region?
It is the last place in Africa where whites still rule! So NO nets in Capetown!
I concur with Fishaan. Now if HE could just fix his blog, and reinstate the comments section - DOOS!!!
Salagatle!
I dont understand what nets and protecting swimmers has anything to do with whites in Capetown? I'm not connecting the dots. BTW, when you guys come and visit me on my blog can you take a second and click on the follower's section so I can get your widget. Thanks : )
A2Z, The Great "White" Shark!
A2Z...as Fishman says, the "whites" referred to in this piece are great White Sharks. And in response to the shark nets question, the only province in the entire SA that has them is KZN. If I'm not mistaken, KZN is the only place in the world that still has nets...the reason escapes me, as they don't stop sharks coming in, but are reputed to stop them going out.
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