Great White Attacks South African Diver

Posted Jun 6th 2005 9:02AM by Willy Volk
Filed under: Dive Sites, Health & Medicine, Events, Media, Flora & Fauna, Beach, Spearguns, Atlantic

On Saturday, 22-year-old Henri Murray was scuba diving and spearfishing with his friend Piet van Niekerk in South Africa’s False Bay, outside Cape Town. In the middle of the afternoon, a Great White shark reportedly attacked Murray. To date, Murray’s body has not been recovered.

Rescue services found a spear gun, a fin, a mask, a snorkel and parts of a weight belt belonging to Murray. Although van Niekerk claims he shot at the Great White with his spear gun, it evidently wasn’t enough to thwart the attack. Interestingly, False Bay plays host to a few Great White cage-diving operations. I’m not suggesting there’s a causal connection; I’m just pointing out an interesting, related fact. Do you think there might be a causal connection?

Reader Comments

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1. Anyone from around Cape Town can tell you that spear-fishing in false bay is just NOT a good idea. False bay has some of the biggest great whites in africa, as well as one of the largest populations of them.

Posted at 10:12PM on Jun 15th 2005 by Dan

2. Thanks for your comment, Dan. I did my shark cage dive in Hermanus, which is adjacent to False Bay, and I think I'd be nervous about spearfishing in the area. We saw tons of huge sharks. On the other hand, Murray probably took a calculated risk and thought his chances of NOT being eaten were great.

Posted at 9:20AM on Jun 16th 2005 by Willy

3. That picture of the great white rocks.

Posted at 4:19PM on Jun 16th 2005 by Nicholas

4. I know: it's by Chris Fallows (http://www.divester.com/2005/06/07/fallows-photos-of-great-whites/).

Posted at 4:19PM on Jun 16th 2005 by Willy

5. I wonder how many dead fish they had attached to their line? I would say that the cage diving doesn't help, but spearfishing would be my greater fear of seeing the white one.

Posted at 5:44PM on Jun 25th 2005 by Deco Chic

6. Did you here about the researchers tagging great whites in False Bay and surrounding areas to find out when and where they go in the areas?

http://scubagypsy.blogspot.com/2005/07/tagging-to-understand-great-whites.html

Posted at 10:28PM on Jul 7th 2005 by Deco Chic

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Great White Attacks South African Diver

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