Second Beach - The most dangerous beach in the world?

                                     Second Beach - The most dangerous beach in the world?

The most dangerous beach in the world, Second Beach, Port St Johns, wasn’t always the most dangerous beach in the world. A few years ago, before the phenomenon of shark attacks happened, it was one of the most relaxed, unspoilt beaches in the world.

Port St Johns, the little village on the Wild Coast of Transkei, was a place that was on the top of most people’s holiday wish lists. A place that was difficult to get to, but that was relaxed, that when you did get to it, you forgot that the rest of the world existed. Its permanent residents were made up of an eclectic mix of artists, farmers, hippies, at one time the staff of the rebel radio station, Capital 604, at another stage; ex Rhodesian Selous Scouts, who trained up an elite army corps.

Second beach, a picture perfect spot: white sand, blue water, waving wild banana (Strilitzia) leaves, is 5 km from the village. It is about a kilometre long, a bay with rocks on both sides; the southern side leading to Silaka Nature Reserve, the northern side having ‘The Gap’, and its famous blowhole. The Gap is a geographical feature in the cliff face, and is featured on many post cards. The blowhole is reached by climbing down and up the gap, on a series of rickety wooden ladders and chains. It is formed by a tunnel under the rocks, and when the tide is high, even better, when the seas are wild, the waves are forced out of the outlet in the rocks, reminiscent of a whale’s blowhole. It should be viewed from a safe distance, but a number of foolhardy tourists have gone to the edge and have been sucked into the hole, never to be seen again. Sad.

The Gap was also known as one of the best shark fishing spots in the world. Local fisherman, Tony Oates, caught many a world record there. And adding to the mystery of Port St Johns, there was the Gap, with its numerous sharks, and within a 100 metres, Second Beach, a very popular swimming beach, full of tourists, splashing in the waves, and never was a bather hazzled by a shark. The fishermen will attest to the fact that sharks swam in and around the bay. So what happened? Why was the beach so safe for the sixty odd years? Why did it become the beach of death?

The Kwa Zulu Natal Sharks Board has been called in to investigate, they haven’t been able to give any answers yet, but in the mean time, have been made to look as if they are responsible for this year’s attack. Yes, this year’s attack – 3 of the attacks have happened two weeks into the new year. Could that not be related to the New Years Day celebrations held at Second Beach, when thousands of people descend on this little beach, because it’s the place to be seen?

Second Beach, on New Year’s day, becomes a wall to wall, or maybe cliff to cliff, seething mass of humanity. There is no way that life savers can keep an eye on people in the sea. People who are mostly drunk, people who cannot swim, people who have no knowledge of the sea, its currents, or rip tides. There is no record of who goes to Second Beach in the 1^st of January. Children are lost and abandoned, the authorities look after the little waifs until they are collected by parents, sometimes a week later. If people can lose their own children, can they not lose themselves in the water? And nobody is any the wiser, because there is no record of them having been to Second Beach, so why would they go missing from there?

This year (2012), 9 bodies were washed up on Durban’s beaches a week after New Year. Nine  bodies that were not reported missing, and that haven’t been identified. Durban has different sea conditions to Port St Johns, the currents there tend to bring back stuff to the beach. On the Wild Coast, it doesn’t get back to shore. Bodies become part of the cycle of life, and are scavenged upon by marine life.

Zambezi sharks are known to scavenge. If people are drowned, and their bodies are not brought back to shore – are they providing food, and attracting sharks? And, does the supply of food run out after two weeks, and do the sharks then look for other sources of easily caught food? The theory that there is a single rogue man eating shark off Second Beach, just doesn’t gel – what does it eat the rest of the year? There are swimmers and surfers there all year around.

The other theory doing the rounds is that the remains of a beached whale that was buried 13 years ago, is ‘chumming’ the water. The idea in itself is ludicrous, afterall, it should be decomposed by now. If it isn’t decomposed, as some ‘experts’ say, why don’t they stop talking about it, and prove it is the problem, by digging it up and disposing of it properly?

The young surfer, Zama, who was the 2011 victim, was given a huge funeral which was politicized. One speaker carried on about ‘it is our right to swim’. Yes, it is everybody’s right to swim, but it is also everybody’s right to think and respect the ocean, and to consult local knowledge, which is: if the sea is dirty, do not swim.

Maligning Second Beach because of lack of respect for nature is unfair, and the sooner people are educated about the dangers of the sea, the better. The Kruger Park has successfully implemented education: Tourists are told to stay in their cars, getting out may result in a lion attack. It is exactly the same with the sea; get in, and you may be attacked by a shark.