INJURED – 13 April 2010 – East Beach, Port Alfred, East Cape, South Africa – surfer attacked

Brendan Denton, 35, was bitten on both feet by a shark while surfing at East Beach, Port Alfred on the east coast of South Africa. The attacked happened about 10am on Tuesday 13 April 2010. He suffered a severed tendon in his right foot and deep lacerations to his left foot.

He told media: “I am lucky to be alive.

“I saw its head over both my feet and realised it was a shark … I turned around and started fighting it and screaming.

“It then tried to swim down with me. I tried to swim up and smack it at the same time before it let loose,” he said.

The shark came up behind him a second time.

“I thought it was really going to chow me this time. I gripped its body and pushed it away from me … my leash (leg rope) got tangled in its mouth and it pulled me and my board back under again.”

He released his board leash and the shark swam off with the leash tangled around it and the board in tow for a few metres before it came loose.

“I swam up to my board, climbed on and held both my bleeding feet above the water. I screamed and paddled to the beach.”

Friends on the beach short helped get him to a doctor.

Reports were not clear about the extent of his injuries, but some said paramedics at the scene said he would need to have tendons on both his ankles reattached.

A spokesperson from the National Sea Rescue Institute said the shark was probably a bonze shark or Zambezi bull shark.

Sources:
Daily Despatch
IOL

INJURED – 29 December 2009 – Port Alfred, Eastern Cape, South Africa – swimmer attacked

Simon Bruce, 20, was bitten on the left foot by what is believed to be a ragged tooth shark while in chest deep water off the beach at Port Alfred in the Eastern Cape, South Africa.

He told media:

“I was walking out into the sea at about 08:30. The water was a little bit murky, but it was really flat. I was walking on a sandbank and I was no more than chest deep when I felt a bump on my foot. I didn’t feel the bite at all.

“Then I felt the shark rub against the top of my legs and I freaked. I assumed straightaway it was a shark.”

He said he did not see the shark at all and immediately headed back to the beach.

While he was wading back to shore his foot started to “feel funny” and he realised he had been bitten.

Two friends on the beach wrapped his foot in a towel and took him to hospital.

No other details were reported.

Sources:

News 24