NSRI are appealing to surfers, bathers and paddlers to be cautious around the Jeffrey’s Bay coastline after a 40-year-old Cape Town man was bitten by a shark while surfing at The Point on Wednesday, July 14.
Kouga Municipality has closed beaches in Jeffrey’s Bay following this shark incident.
According to Craig Lambinon, NSRI spokesperson, at 07:07 the NSRI Jeffrey’s Bay duty crew were activated following reports of a surfer bitten by a shark while surfing at The Point.
While responding to the scene the NSRI were informed that the surfer was out of the water. An NSRI Bakoven crewman, who happened to be there at the time, initiated me-dical treatment using an NSRI shark kit from the NSRI shark kit box that is stationed at The Point Beach.
Gardmed ambulance services, EC Government Health EMS, Private Care ambulance services and Exec Ops security responded.
Paramedics treated the man on the scene for puncture wounds to his right leg and his torso and he was transported to hospital by a Gardmed ambulance in a stable condition.
“It appears that while surfing, fellow surfers saw the man appear to fall off his board. It was then discovered, according to eye-witness reports, that he may have been bumped off his board and bitten by a shark. We believe he managed to get back onto his board and he was assisted out of the water by fellow surfers,” Lambinon said.
NSRI yesterday launched a sea rescue craft, at the request of Kouga Municipality, to patrol the surfline and to alert surfers who were at that stage not aware of the shark incident.
At the time of going to print, it was unclear what type of shark it was. The name of the surfer that was bitten had also not yet been released.
