A vast part of the South African coastline has been closed after a 15-metre whale washed ashore after being attacked by great white sharks.
On Sunday, the whale’s carcass drew many great white sharks to the coast near Muizenberg beach, near Cape Town.
The southern right whale has subsequently been removed from the beach, but authorities have closed off a length of coastline from Muizenberg to Monwabisi ‘as a precaution’.
Disaster response workers had worked quickly to pull the animal out of the water and onto a flatbed truck, which was no simple task when dealing with a whale species weighing up to 47 tonnes.
‘A decision was made to commence the recovery effort immediately because of the increase in shark activity off beaches along the False Bay coastline,’ said Wilfred Solomons-Johannes, a spokesman for Cape Town’s disaster risk management centre.
The warning did not deter inquisitive onlookers from flocking to the location.
Samples were obtained from the carcass to allow pathologists to determine the cause of death before it was disposed of at a landfill site, according to Claire McKinnon, manager of the Cape Town cleansing and solid-waste management department.
A bulldozer rolled the whale over the sand once it was out of the sea.
Solomons-Johannes stated that it was unknown if the whale was alive when the sharks attacked it or had died due to disease.
‘Normally, predators like sharks sneak up on their prey from behind or underneath. ‘Predators don’t normally fight,’ he explained.
‘A predator approaches the prey fast and softly. Predators target sick, injured, young, or old animals because they are easier to trap.’
J.P. Andrews, a local youngster, was attacked by a great white shark while surfing off Muizenberg beach in 2005.
Doctors declared him dead on the beach, but he survived despite losing his right leg.
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