Scientific Team Makes Headway in Sharm El-Sheikh

(Dive Travel Business News - December 12, 2010) -- American scientists are making rapid progress in the investigation of an unprecedented string of attacks off a 3-mile stretch of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. The shark experts, flown into the Egyptian resort after 5 shark attacks killed one woman and seriously injured 4 others, have positively identified at least two of the sharks responsible.

The breakthrough came after the team questioned witnesses, studied photographs, examined forensic evidence and pathologist reports, and investigated the waters near each of the incidents. The scientists say they are working on the basis that between two and four individual sharks were involved in the attacks.

The team has concluded from photographic evidence that clearly shows that an oceanic whitetip with a unusual notch in its tail-fin that attacked a Russian man on Nov 30, is the same individual shark that returned six days later to a nearby stretch of water to attack and kill a 70-year-old German woman, the fifth shark attack victim.

Before the death of the German tourist, Egyptian authorities caught and killed a shortfin mako shark. Scientists have subsequently concluded that attacks three and four were carried out by a shortfin mako shark, possibly also a single individual.

"There's not a slam dunk answer to this but there are some factors that we are aware of and we are in fairly good shape in terms of knowing who the culprits are," said George Burgess, a marine biologist who heads the Florida-based International Shark Attack File.

The swift progress on the case is raising hopes for a rapid solution to the situation that has snorkeling and swimming curtailed along most of the 30 miles of beach in the resort region.

The shark experts continue to scour the seas to determine why the sharks appeared in the first place. It is unusual for oceanic whitetips and makos, both pelagic sharks  whose natural habitat is the open ocean, to be found so close to shore. Until last week's attacks only two juvenile whitetips had been seen off the coast of Sharm el-Sheikh all year, according to Elke Bojanowski, a leading researcher on Red Sea sharks.

What is more curious is the fact that all the attacks took place in the middle of the day. Sharks are opportunistic feeders who hunt through the day and night. The timing of the attacks may suggest that the sharks had become conditioned to expect food at certain times because of human interference.

The practice of illegally feeding and baiting sharks may be linked to the abnormal shark behavior in Egypt’s most popular Red Sea resort. Bojanowksi acknowledged that tour guides who take tourists out to spot sharks have been known to throw offal overboard in order to lure the predators closer. The practice, known as chumming, is strictly forbidden in the resort area.

Some point the finger at less reputable diving schools that have been known to use bait to impress their clients with shark activity and compete with the more established companies. Some established diving schools believe locally operated glass bottomed boat may have the same motivation - to entice clients with shark action during a day safari of underwater viewing.  

Overfishing is another possible theory for the attacks that may have left pelagics, like oceanic white tips and makos, with a depleted food source, forcing them to move into new territories to find prey.

Another suspect is a ship importing live sheep and cattle from Australia for sacrifice during last month’s Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha. Owners of the ship are facing possible litigation from the Egyptian government after dead animals were thrown over-board as the ship voyaged up the Red Sea. With such a powerful sense of smell, sharks from 100 miles away could have been attracted by the ship's waste.  When the food source disappeared, the sharks would have struggled to find food because their favored prey, tuna, has been overfished in the Red Sea.

Another possibility for the shark presence is the unusually warm water temperatures for the season, perhaps the result of global warming, that may have lured the sharks into the northern reaches of the Red Sea, far from their normal habitats.

Why exactly did the sharks attack humans? Burgess and his team are looking into the motivation behind the attacks as part of the investigation.

"Was this just a shark that made a couple of errors of judgment or decided that humans were ok, or was it an act of desperation by a shark trying to make a living in order to survive?" ponders Burgess.

And why did a shark attack more than once? In recent years, experts have largely discredited the idea of the existence of "rogue" sharks. Rarely do sharks strike more than one victim since sharks dislike the taste of human flesh. However, scientists acknowledge that in this case, an oceanic white tip was the culprit in two shark attacks, and may also be responsible for the fourth attack of a Ukrainian woman. The team continues to investigate the possibility that that an individual mako was to blame for the attack on two other victims.

Mr. Burgess has carefully studied the only other proven case of a rogue shark that occurred in 1916: A great white killed four people and attacked a fifth along the coast of New Jersey. The story inspired Peter Benchley to write the book "Jaws".  According to Burgess, the 1916 rogue shark may have been injured or malformed, forcing it to attack humans because it was unable easily to hunt its normal prey. He suggests that in the case of the oceanic whitetip shark attacks off Sharm el-Sheikh, the unusual notch on the tail may be an injury that points to the same underlying motivation.

Sharks are facing extinction because of man. As part of the investigation, the experts ordered an end to a cull in the waters off Sharm el-Sheikh that has seen Egyptian authorities kill a number of innocent sharks in a panicked attempt to end the underwater threat.

Burgess says, to address the problem of shark attacks, the ad hoc killing of sharks sends the wrong message - that the sharks are the cause of the problem - when preliminary findings suggest that humans, both directly and indirectly, are at least partially responsible for the shark attacks.

Burgess points out there is an average of five shark-related deaths a year, yet humans kill up to 75 million sharks annually, for their fins for shark fin soup, for their meat or simply as a result of by-catch. And while some shark populations have fallen by 99 per cent in 50 years, sharks are essential to the health of our ocean ecosystems.

Healthy ocean ecosystems are a pillar of successful beach resort areas, such as Sharm el-Sheikh that attracts close to 3 million tourists each year. It is critical that people see the links between sharks, healthy oceans and people so that this latest series of attacks doesn't set the efforts of shark conservation back twenty years - or more.

Burgess says killing sharks won't stop shark attacks. A better way to curtail shark incidents is to have better surveillance of the waters off popular beaches, similar to shark monitoring programs conducted at major swimming, snorkeling and surfing locations in Australia and the United States. Beaches can be closed quickly when a potential shark problem is sighted.

FACTS: About The Red Sea
An inlet of the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea is a long, narrow tropical sea almost 1400 miles long, and at its widest point, 221 miles wide. At its deepest point, it’s 7,254 feet deep, but it also contains coral reefs and shallow areas. The Red Sea is bordered by Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Somalia, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Eritrea, and Djibouti. Because of its clear warm water and its abundance of marine life, the Red Sea is a popular destination for divers and snorkelers.

A city situated at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula on the Red Sea, Sharm el-Sheikh is on a promontory overlooking the Straits of Tiran at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba. Sharm el-Sheikh city together with Naama Bay, Hay el Nour, Hadaba, Rowaysat, Montazah and Shark's Bay form a metropolitan area. Before it developed into Egypt's most popular Red Sea resort, Sharm el-Sheikh was an occasional small port for local fisherman. 

The Mako Shark:
There are two species of mako sharks – the short-fin mako and the long-fin mako. Averaging 10 feet in length, and weighing up to 880 pounds, the short-fin mako is found in warm and temperate oceans including the Red Sea.  The mako has teeth that are visible when the mouth is closed. It is sometimes mistaken for a great white. A very active shark, the short-fin mako has a range of more than 1000 miles, can make short bursts of speed up to 46 m.p.h.  and can leap out of the water 30 feet or higher into the air. Makos eat more than most other shark species because of their high metabolism. Mako sharks feed on turtles, squid, octopuses, birds, porpoises, and a variety of fish, including other sharks. An opportunistic feeder, the short-fin mako has been responsible for attacks on both humans and on boats.

The Oceanic Whitetip Shark:
Slim and streamlined, averaging 10 feet long  and weighing up to 370 pounds, the oceanic whitetip shark is found in warmer waters worldwide, including the Red Sea. The shark's most distinguishing characteristics are its long, wing-like pectoral and dorsal fins. The shark's conspicuously rounded fins are significantly larger than most other shark species. Most of its fins have white tips. It prefers deep water far from shore and is rarely found in shallow water. White tips feed on fish, squid, octopuses, crustaceans, stingrays, birds, turtles, and small whales. In contrast to makos, oceanic whitetips  aren’t particularly active or fast swimmers but they can be very aggressive.  Like makos, whitetips are opportunistic feeders and often follow ships to consume any garbage dumped overboard. Dominant in feeding frenzies at sites of shipwrecks and plane crashes, the oceanic whitetip became famous as the shark that killed many shipwrecked sailors after the sinking of the USS Indianapolis in WWII.  

Sources:
Daily Telegraph
Wikipedia

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