Hassiem – No Hard Feelings

Lifeguard Achmat Hassiem, who was bit by a shark last week in Cape Town, (see our previous article) shows no hard feelings toward the shark saying that he does not wish the shark to be killed.

“You can’t kill something for just doing what it does,” he told AFP at his home. “You can’t blame them for what they are. They are a top predator. They don’t have hands to feel. They use their mouths to feel, and unluckily as humans we bleed. He got my foot, I got his tooth. It’s only fair, we’re even.”

Shark Working Group spokesman Gregg Oelofse also agrees saying that killing sharks would be pointless. “It would be little more than a symbolic response to appease angry people. If you wanted to be truly safe you would have to cull every shark in the sea. And nobody knows how many there are. I can relate to people feeling under threat. But we need to recognize that for as long as we use the sea for recreation, there will on occasion be an attack.”

Surfing events administrator Paul Botha thinks differently. “Something needs to be done. There has been enough talking. We have created a problem. We have an over-population of sharks with not enough to eat.”

There have been even shark attacks of the coast of Cape Town in the last five years, with many taking place at small boats further out at sea.