Shark victim obsessed with swimming with predators

Shark victim obsessed with swimming with predators

Brit accountant Michael Cohen being dragged to safety. Pic from www.mirror.co.uk

Horrified holidaymakers could do nothing but watch the churning waters as Lloyd Skinner was ripped to pieces by a Great White shark.

With the swimmers traumatised wife helpless on the beach, a boat was scrambled to save him, but all rescuers found was a pair of tattered goggles, floating in the blood-stained surf.

That was the scene just a year ago on the same South African beach where this week Brit accountant Michael Cohen had a leg and foot ripped off while swimming close to shore after telling friends: If a shark takes me, blame me and not the shark.

Today we can reveal Cohen, 42, had a fascination with Great Whites and for years repeatedly ignored warnings not to swim in the waters that are home to the worlds largest population of these predators.

Marine biologist Alison Kock, 34, heads a team of professional shark-spotters which monitors beaches including the one where Cohen was attacked.

She said her team had prolonged contact with him and even held a meeting in February to discuss his worrying behaviour.

We were shocked to hear about Cohen, she added. I have huge sympathy for him and his family, but sadly he was already known to us.

We had even discussed his behaviour at a meeting after he repeatedly failed to listen to our warnings.

We dont have the power to physically stop people from entering the water, but it is baffling that someone would choose to ignore the safety advice. The attack on Cohen was devastating for the community and for our team.

Cohen was plucked from the waves by rescuers who braved the still-circling shark, and who were apparently protected by a seal which swam around them and kept the beast at bay.

The surgeon who battled to save Mr Cohens remaining leg prai! sed the tourists who applied an emergency tourniquet and said in other circumstances, the swimmer, who needed 14 pints of blood in a transfusion, would have died.

But while Cohen was fighting for his life, his blas attitude to killer Great Whites was being mirrored by a group of surfers on the next beach.

Despite being urged to come ashore by Alisons shark-spotters, they refused, seemingly set on the experience of surfing alongside one of natures most feared killing machines.

The pristine waters off Cape Town are like a larder for Great Whites. They usually feed on seals which gather on an island five miles offshore, but each September they move closer to the coast.

In recent years an average of six people have been attacked every year in South African waters, with 26 attacks since 1960. One in 10 is fatal. Globally, the number of attacks is growing as tourists spend more time in the waters sharks favour off Australia, America and in the Pacific.

Last month, honeymooner Ian Redmond, 30, died in the Seychelles after being attacked by either a tiger or Great White shark as he snorkelled near the beach.

Alison, who has spent a decade studying sharks and has run the sharkspotting team since it was set up three years ago, frowns at knee-jerk calls for the man-eaters to be killed.

Sharks always get bad press, she said. Most people have seen Jaws and think they understand sharks but the reality is not like a movie. They are beautiful creatures and protected here by law as a threatened species.

I dont believe many members of the public would want to see them hooked out and dragged up the beach.

She said sharks were wired to hunt creatures thrashing in the water. The sharks behaviour hasnt changed. This is nature in action. They are animals doing what they do.

Alisons crew oversees four of the citys beaches, working in pairs on the mountain ready to alert colleagues on the beach at the first sign of sharks.

Beach-goers are then warned of the threat by sire! ns and f lags, with beaches closed completely if the risk is high.

There were reports that a power cut on Wednesday made it impossible for them to sound the alarm when Mr Cohen entered the water, although he had been warned in person.

Alison said: In some places, nets stop sharks getting close to the beach but they get caught up and die, alongside turtles and dolphins. We dont feel it is right to do that in Cape Town.

Statistically, you are safer in the sea than when you get in your car.

But when sharks are around, the sea is never entirely risk-free and I wouldnt dream of going in the water when sharks have been spotted. - www.mirror.co.uk