Great White shark scared swimmers in Cape Town beach

Stingrays, a great white shark and broken sea shells conspired to ruin the day for bathers at Cape Town’s Muizenberg beach at the weekend.

On Saturday, two people were treated in hospital after they stepped on the serrated, venomous tails of blue stingrays — injuries that marine experts called unprecedented at Muizenberg.
The National Sea Rescue Institute said the two stingray victims were doing well and recovering at home.

“To our understanding, nothing like this has happened before at Surfers’ Corner,” spokesman Craig Lambinon said.

Yvonne Kamp, speaking on behalf of the Shark Spotters group, which posts lookouts on cliffs overlooking popular beaches, said she had never before heard of swimmers being injured by stingrays.

She said bathers at Muizenberg had a fresh scare yesterday when a great white shark cruised close to the surf line. Swimmers were warned to get out of the water.

Lambinon said six people cut the soles of their feet at Muizenberg on Saturday when they stepped on broken mussel shells.

He said a strong south-easter appeared to have blown a large number of mussels into the area.