A great white shark breaches near Seal Island in False Bay, Cape Town. Chris Brunskill Ltd/Corbis via Getty Images
Club Med has landed in the middle of a furore over the best way to keep sharks from attacking tourists at its more than $120 million South African resort.
Just months ahead of the official opening of Club Med Tinley Manor — the French tourism company’s first resort in the country, about 45km north of the subtropical Indian Ocean port city of Durban — marine scientists have lodged a complaint over the possibility local authorities will erect nets off the beach adjacent to the resort.
While the plan, greenlit by the KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board, would be aimed at preventing tourists from being eaten by tiger sharks, bull sharks or great white sharks, the contraptions risk killing a large number of the predatory fish, dolphins, rays, turtles and birds, the scientists say.
Only last year, such nets and drum lines killed 416 sharks off the coast of the KwaZulu-Natal province, where Durban is located, not to mention other species of marine life, many of them endangered.
How bathers are protected from sharks is a contentious issue in South Africa. In KwaZulu-Natal province, nets have been used on some beaches to limit the number of sharks, while Cape Town and Plettenberg Bay, two other tourist centres, rely on shark spotters who scan the waters off beaches and alert bathers when sharks approach. There have been fatal shark attacks at all three locations.
The scientists argue that the nets are an outdated method, which — rather than acting as barriers — reduce the number of sharks by entangling them. They’re offering up other means that are used elsewhere in the world.
“Our suggestions for alternative measures were dismissed out of hand,” said Ryan Daly, a senior scientist at the Durban-based Oceanographic Research Institute, who helped author a scientific report on the impact of nets at the site. “Why don’t they consider modern practices used in places like Australia, where lifeguards use drones to check on dangerous rip currents and look out for sharks?”
Club Med’s logo on its Paris, France, headquarters.
Between 2012 and 2021, there were six fatal shark attacks in South Africa, while 23 non-fatal bites were recorded, according to the International Shark Attack File, which is affiliated with the Florida Museum and has been tracking shark attacks since 1958.
That compares with 20 fatal attacks off Australia over that period, three in Hawaii and eight near Reunion, an island off Africa’s east coast. Globally, 60 people were recorded as having been killed by the fish. Great white, tiger and bull sharks are the most dangerous species.
None of the methods — be they nets, drones or spotters — “provide 100% safety in isolation,” said Enrico Gennari, director at the Oceans Research Institute, which is based in Mossel Bay, South Africa.
While drones are effective for spotting great white sharks and tiger sharks, they are less reliable in the case of the deep-swimming bull sharks, he said. That said, nets, which date back to the 1950s, harm sealife, Gennari added.
“Are they dangerous? Yes, because they are designed to be dangerous,” Gennari said.
They are designed to kill sharks and unintentionally kill other marine species.
Enrico Gennari
The KwaDukuza municipality, which would have the final say on the installation of the nets, says a firm decision has yet to be made and that it will conduct an environmental impact assessment.
Chris du Toit, project lead for the Tinley Manor project on behalf of Collins Residential, which is developing the resort for Club Med, said the beach is public and is the municipality’s responsibility. He said the municipality is considering bather-safety measures as there will be as many as 1 000 additional beach users a day when the resort opens.
“We trust the transparent, science-led process being undertaken by relevant authorities and independent experts to determine the most balanced and responsible solution, and to provide safe swimming for not only local, but international travellers to the country,” Club Med said in a statement responding to Bloomberg’s queries.
The commitment is to prioritise both public safety and marine conservation — protecting people and protecting the environment are inseparable responsibilities.
Club Med
According to the scientists, the acting head of research for the Sharks Board, Matt Dicken, is throwing his weight behind Club Med and has said that nets slash the number of shark attacks.
Club Med considered that the only viable bather-protection mechanism for “the species of concern was the use of nets and drums and hence we were approached,” Dicken said, according to the scientists’ report. “Nets and drumlines are cheap and so the decision was made by KwaDukuza Municipality to approach the Sharks Board.”
The Sharks Board didn’t respond to queries.
It’s not immediately clear which way the municipality will lean, with the resort slated to open in July.
Club Med is owned by China’s Fosun Tourism Group. The company’s headquarters are in Paris and it owns ski and beach resorts across North America, Europe, Asia, the Bahamas and on Indian Ocean islands, including Mauritius.
