Читать книгу Killers in the Water - The New Super Sharks Terrorising The World's Oceans - Sue Blackhall - Страница 6

‘I BEGAN TO REALISE I WAS BEING EATEN ALIVE…’

Egypt’s tourist hot spot the Red Sea rightly deserved its name at the end of 2010 for the crystal-clear waters, a haven for divers because of the prolific sea life, were indeed turning red – with the blood of those maimed and killed by a shark.

But this was no one-off attack. It was if the beast was lying in wait for its prey; its taste for blood sharpened, its natural instincts enflamed to such a degree that human flesh and bone were literally easy meat.

Death and devastation were the only words to describe the events that occurred at the holiday resort of Sharm El Sheikh during the serial-killer shark’s reign. The attacks left one woman dead and four other people horrifically injured – and memories equally scarring. So desperate were the authorities to bring an end to the nightmare that chaos and confusion abounded – with the predator proving as slippery as its stealthy movements below the water. Its deadly attacks were killing off the beach tourism that contributes a massive percentage towards the £7.8bn ($12bn) or so reaped by Egypt’s travel industry every year.

The shark seized its first victim around 2.40pm on Tuesday, 30 November 2010 at Tiran Beach. Russian woman Olga Martsinko, 48, lost an arm and was horrifically mauled as she snorkelled with her daughter (Elena, 21) in shallow waters close to the beach with the darkly ironical name of Shark’s Bay. The first time Olga realised she was not alone in the water was when her outstretched hand touched a solid bulk. Warnings of ‘Shark! Shark!’ were screamed in Russian by fellow holidaymakers. An Oceanic Whitetip – the species described by famous underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau as ‘the most dangerous of all sharks’ – was on the attack. Olga later gave a graphic account of her horrific ordeal.

‘At first I thought it was a dolphin, and then this black fin; I saw it right in front of me, this black fin. When it caught me by the arm I felt three rows of teeth. I felt a sharp pain as it came up, sank its teeth into my arm and began to wag me around. I knew there were predators in the sea but I never expected to meet a monster face to face. Like a spark, a clear thought flashed through my mind that it was a shark. It went under me and bit my buttock and tore it off; tore one of my buttocks right off. It tried to pull me down with it into the sea and I saw the huge jaws and sharp fin beside me. The shark let me go for a second and I swam away. But it came back for more, biting me again and again from behind. If I had not had my flippers on, it would have taken off both my legs. I began to realise that I was being eaten alive; that I might not be able to reach the pontoon. I immediately realised I could die, right then.’

By the time Olga made it to the pontoon to be dragged to safety by shocked tourists, she had lost a chunk of her right thigh and buttock; her hand and arm were also missing. The waters were red with her blood and still more poured from her appalling injuries.

Olga’s daughter gave her own emotional account: ‘We were only 30 feet (9m) away from the jetty and could easily see the other people on the beach. My mother suddenly disappeared under the water and I saw the shark swirling her down. When she came up again, the shark let go and she shouted “Spasite, akula!” (“Help me, shark!”) If she had not swum fast with her flippers, she would have lost her legs as it chased her to the jetty.’

Olga was flown to Cairo’s Nasser Institute Hospital, where the surgeon on duty, Dr. Mohamed Dahi, was shocked at the severity of her injuries – ‘I walked into the emergency room and when I saw the victim, I found her arm was amputated up to the elbow. I saw the wound at the back of her. It was about 40cm (16in) by 50cm (20in).’

Just minutes after the attack on Olga there was a second one. At 2.55pm, another Russian woman, Lyudmila Stolyarova, was swimming close to the shore and the pontoon, and well within the buoy area. She felt something brush against her and assumed it was a diver coming to the surface of the sea. But it was a shark: ‘It swam between me and the sea shore, so you see I had nowhere to go,’ said Lyudmila. ‘It started to swim in circles around me, in circles, and right then it started – started to attack me. It bit my arm off. It bit it off! I lifted my arm up in the air and started screaming “Help, shark!” Only when they started hauling me onto a boat did I realise my leg was bitten off.’

Meanwhile, her husband Vladimir, 72, had been forced to look on helplessly. ‘I looked up and there – oh no! People were carrying my wife on a sun bed and the ambulance was waiting. It was such a horror. What I saw there when she lifted her arm, I won’t describe all the horrors, the torn wounds.’ The special holiday break the couple had been enjoying to celebrate Lyudmila’s 70th birthday ended in a nightmare, with Vladimir’s pleas to his wife not to go into the water because he felt uneasy proving justified. Diving instructor Hassan Salem, who had been on the dive, told how he was circled by the shark before it attacked the victims: ‘I was able to scare the shark away by blowing bubbles in its face, but then saw it swim to a woman and bite her legs,’ he said.

Lyudmila, too, was a victim of an Oceanic Whitetip and was also rushed to the Cairo hospital. Again, Dr. Dahi was confronted with the devastation caused by a shark on the human body: ‘She had an amputated arm and an amputated leg. At our hospital we have experienced injuries caused by sharks. They were mainly caused by small sharks – not like this. This time it looks to be a large shark, I feel there is a problem in the sea.’

The next day, Wednesday, 1 December at 10.55am, Ukrainian snorkeller Viktor Koliy, 46, was attacked within minutes of jumping from the pontoon in Shark’s Bay. But it was this attack that made the authorities realise that not one, but two species of shark were preying on humans. This time the attacker was a Mako shark. Yet, like the Oceanic Whitetip, it was far from its deep-sea home and had strayed into shallow waters. Koliy’s arm was torn and he was pulled from the water, the haemorrhaging from his injuries turning the sea red again.

Just five minutes later, 54-year-old Russian marine captain Yevgeniy Trishkin became the next victim to be savaged in a shark’s jaws; not those of the Mako, but an Oceanic Whitetip. His left arm was torn off from below the elbow and his other hand mauled as he swam near Naama Bay on the third day of his holiday. Like the other victims, Trishkin had been swimming in the ‘safe’ area marked for swimming. Children had been playing in the water and there were no warning signs about the threat of sharks.

Afterwards Trishkin recalled: ‘At the end of the pontoon there was a sharp depth increase and the colour of the sea gets a much darker blue, almost black. I swam into this and by the time I saw the shark, it was too late. It came from the deep and was the same black colour as the sea; it bit and started chewing my left arm. I hit it with my right arm while it continued to eat the left away. I hit its nose several times and for a second it opened up its jaws, but only to bite my other hand. It was a huge creature. The people on the jetty heard my cries and came to rescue me just as I was losing consciousness. They dragged me out of the water.’

His ordeal was witnessed first hand by British holidaymakers Jim and Joanna Farr, who had been snorkelling over the coral reef. Before swimming away in terror, they quickly took photographs of the attack, which identified the Oceanic Whitetip shark as the one responsible for previous attacks because it had the same chunk missing from its dorsal fin. Jim, 58, had actually been bumped by the shark before it made its way to its victim. He remembered: ‘We were in the water, just swimming along quite casually when we came across an area which was a diving pontoon. Below us was the coral reef and three divers or four divers down there; you could see all the bubbles, but it was as clear as anything. It was wonderful, fish galore. Two guys jumped off the pontoon just in front of us and they swam past me. As they swam past, I felt this bang on my back – I thought they had jumped off the pontoon on top of me. But I looked up and could see the pontoon was about ten feet away from me.’

Jim and his wife Joanna, 42, were dragged to safety in a boat. Joanna takes up the story: ‘The snorkel guide took his snorkel out and shouted “Shark, shark! Get out the water now! We were about twenty or thirty metres from the boat and we literally just had to swim for it, knowing there was a shark in the water. There was screaming and shouting; people just went wild. Everyone was in shock. You could see blood pouring through the pontoon, staining the water red. The guy next to him had his head in his hands because he had just witnessed it all. People were screaming and they were still pulling people out of the water. Some were running along the platform to the safety of the shore and people on the beach had run back in terror, standing 10m (33ft) from the shoreline to get as far from the water as they could. There was total panic. Our guide told us he had seen a 3.5m- (11ft) long shark in the water and pointed to the Oceanic Whitetip in my fish guide. They took us away from the scene as quickly as possible and tried to convince us it was probably someone who had cut themselves on the coral but we knew it was a shark and nobody wanted to get back in the water.’

Jim adds: ‘I could see the guy being pulled up onto the pontoon. There was blood everywhere, blood squirting everywhere – it was like a war scene.’ The couple literally had to swim for their lives. ‘It was only when we got back [that] we heard the shark had attacked several swimmers and realised what a close shave we had had,’ said Joanna. Among the photographs they took were some that showed blood pouring off the pontoon as Trishkin was pulled to safety.

Local diving instructor Marcus Maurer helped with the rescue. ‘There was a lot of blood. I saw the shark stay there for a while and we started the rescue situation. A lot of people had been carrying the man up, so we gave him oxygen support and we brought him directly to hospital. Usually we do not see sharks. We have lots of people during the year snorkelling, swimming and diving at this place. You do not see sharks because they are shy animals.’

Mohamed Rashad, a barman at the nearby al-Bahr beach restaurant was one of those who could only look on in horror as those in the water attempted to flee to safety. ‘The sea went red!’ he said. British holidaymaker Nina Dydzinski, 46, from Wigan, Lancashire was relaxing on the beach when she heard the shouts – ‘I had just come in from the water, where I’d been snorkelling close to the beach. I heard a man shouting. Everyone panicked.’ Her husband, Jarostaw, 49, was lucky to escape. He was in the water when the hysterical cries rang through the air, but managed to scramble to safety. ‘Everyone was just trying to climb onto the jetty,’ he said.

No wonder tour operators reported a significant drop in the number of Russian tourists making their way to Egypt. ‘There is no doubt that the news coverage of the shark attacks in Sharm El Sheikh has scared tourists away,’ admitted Irina Sivenko of Moscow’s TanTour tour agency, before adding that while most tourists were refusing to go to Sharm El Sheikh, others had actually contacted the company to see if package holidays there were now cheaper.

Despite determined efforts to stress the rarity of shark attacks in the Egyptian waters, this was no consolation for holidaymakers or those endeavouring to bring an end to it all. ‘We are monitoring the situation very closely and working together with all authorities to ensure the safety of all members and visitors in the Red Sea,’ said Hesham Gabr, chairman of Egypt’s Chamber of Diving and Watersports (CDWS), ‘Our thoughts are with the victims and their families.’

No one could have imagined that worse was yet to come.

Desperate not to lose vital tourist trade – up to five million holidaymakers every year – the authorities knew they must hunt down the killer. But was it one main predator or more? Some had witnessed the Oceanic Whitetip in action; others reported seeing the Mako shark. The CDWS stated that it was ‘working continuously with all the relevant authorities and shark experts to try to resolve this situation in the most appropriate and safe way for all concerned.’ Furthermore, it was calling on the help of experts to ‘form an advisory team on the best course of action’ following the Naama Bay incident. In other words, it was time to bring in the heavy mob. Three shark experts from America were flown in to Sharm El Sheikh – Dr. George Burgess, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research and curator of the International Shark Attack File at the Florida Museum of Natural History; Marie Levine, head of the Shark Research Institute at Princeton, and Ralph Collier of the Shark Research Committee.

‘When you have these many shark attacks in such a short period of time, there must have been something to incite it,’ pronounced Dr. Burgess. ‘It does not conform to normal shark behaviour in the least bit.’ Collier said: ‘I have been working in the field of shark interaction since 1963 and this is the first time I have ever seen injuries this severe and this localised as far as the area of the body that was bitten is concerned. We always hear that sharks like human flesh, but of course that is not true. Sharks don’t like humans – it’s as simple as that.’ Back in the US, a fourth expert – shark behaviourist Erich Ritter – was on hand to advise from his research centre.

‘My job was to figure out why,’ he said. ‘Every wound tells a story. Sharks’ teeth are like fingerprints. They are identifiable to a specific species based on the shape and the function of the tooth. Mako sharks have sharp, pointed teeth which slash through their prey, whereas Oceanic Whitetips have serrated teeth which leave a straight cut in their victims. What this told me was that most wounds were inflicted by an Oceanic Whitetip, but one person was actually bitten by a Mako shark.’ All of which surprised Ritter. ‘Humans are not the normal prey of sharks – we are terrestrial animals, we don’t live in the ocean. Sharks feed on things they see and live with every day in the marine environment. We are not on the menu. If they are showing up in shallow waters, then there must be a very powerful trigger.’

It was a view shared by diving instructor Marcus Maurer, who said that although the powerful Oceanic Whitetip was indigenous to the Red Sea, thousands of divers had encountered them without any problems: ‘I have now had more than 3,000 dives and I have never had a problem with them. This is a really unusual event. I think the chance of dying by an aeroplane accident is much bigger than getting involved in a shark attack. The instructors and divers who come here are actually looking for sharks because we love them. And that is really, really, an excellent experience for everybody.’

Yet another shark expert – Samuel Gruber, head of Miami’s world-famous Bimini Biological Field Station – described the attacks as ‘unprecedented’. He said: ‘A shark in one day bit more than one person. In all my years reading about sharks and writing about them, you never hear about sharks biting more than one person, then for it to happen the next day is almost like a Jaws’ scenario. Finding the shark is pretty much a crapshoot – it’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack.’

Gruber said such frenzied feeding is normally reserved for shipwreck survivors. The most infamous took place during World War II when the Nova Scotia – a steamship carrying around 1,000 people – was sunk near South Africa by a German submarine. With only 192 survivors, many deaths were attributed to the Whitetip. Packs of sharks moved in for the kill and those on rafts could only look on in horror as their fellow passengers, desperately thrashing about in the water, were eaten alive. Sergeant Lorenzo Bucci recalled: ‘A lone swimmer would appear, then suddenly throw his arms in the air, scream and disappear. Soon after, a reddish blob would colour the water.’ Later, around 120 corpses washed up on Durban’s beaches. And on 30 July 1945, the USS Indianapolis was torpedoed, with many of the 800 sailors on board succumbing to shark attacks, as well as exposure. In fact, the Oceanic Whitetip is responsible for more fatal attacks on humans than any other species combined. There were five such recorded attacks in 2009.

Meanwhile, back at the Rea Sea and events of 2011, some expressed cynicism about the intervention of high-profile experts. One dive-centre owner observed: ‘Why did they need to import all these specialists merely to come up with the same explanations that we all had from day one?’

More help came from a Swedish vessel surveying the waters around the resort to try and track any shark movements. The authorities closed all Sharm El Sheikh’s beaches and all diving and watersports activities were suspended. Now the once tourist-thronged beaches were virtually deserted, although perhaps surprisingly consent was still given for experienced divers to enter the Red Sea. But even venturing to ‘safe’ locations ended in fear for some intent on hitting the waters. London financier Nick Treadwell visited the national marine park of Ram Mohammed, where he set off on a boat trip in a party of ten snorkellers. Treadwell was one of two who decided to go scuba diving. The morning’s dive was idyllic, but the second one was certainly not. Treadwell was down about 14m (46ft) when his instructor noticed a stray piece of equipment below them and dived for it, before flinching in shock on his way back up. Above the scuba divers and below the snorkellers a large shark, more than 2m (6.5ft) long, slowly encircled the group. Treadwell later told the Guardian newspaper that after it was brought to his attention, he went ‘calm – very calm’ as he watched the instructor freedive down a few metres and then begin corkscrewing to the surface, blowing bubbles, in an attempt to scare the shark away: ‘He went to the top and shouted, “Shark, shark, shark – everyone get to the reef!” Everyone started swimming as fast as they could because the reef was too shallow for the shark, so it would be a safe place. But there was an older lady, probably in her late 60s, who was slightly hard of hearing and she was delayed. The shark started coming towards her, and she ended up kicking it in the face a couple of times and using her underwater camera to whack it over the head. She got away, but she had cuts all over her legs. I don’t know whether the shark had actually bitten her, but they looked like lacerations – almost like injuries from where she’d kicked the shark in the teeth.’

Dr. Mohammed Salem, marine biologist and director of South Sinai National Park, stressed that it was wrong for people to assume sites like Ras Mohammed were safe: ‘It is a misunderstanding when people think that the words “National Park” mean that it is a place that is absolutely protected from human activities. I tell them this is wrong.’ In fact Salem was one of the few to be open about the reality of shark attacks in the Red Sea, admitting that between 1996 and 2009 there were 12 attacks recorded, the latest bringing the number to 17. However, he added, ‘This is a very small number compared to other attacks in other countries like the USA and Australia. Also, regarding the very high number of snorkellers and swimmers coming every year to the area, we find this number is slight.’ He added that the recent attacks had occurred from north Naama Bay to Ras Nasrani, just by Shark’s Bay, and ‘had our attention because naturally, sharks fear human contact because they don’t know what they are so [they] are careful when they come close to them. The other observation was realising that the attacks were in the day while naturally, sharks hunt only during the period between sunset and dawn. The question is what made these sharks in this specific area change their behaviour and attack.’

Meanwhile, the hunt for the killer – or killers – went on. Beliefs about the shark attacks still differed, though, with one senior government official stating: ‘It is clear now that we’re dealing with multiple sharks and undoubtedly at least one of them is still out there in the water.’ Boats and divers were dispatched to track it – or them – down. Desperate to allay fears, make their waters safe and preserve a highly lucrative tourist industry, the authorities knew they must act fast. But it was all about to go horribly wrong.

In a statement, the Egyptian environment minister announced that the shark had been captured and was being held at Ras Mohammed. Two other sharks – a Mako (the smaller, shyer species rarely seen in the Red Sea) and an Oceanic Whitetip – were slaughtered and dissected for examination of their stomachs. The examination of the Mako confirmed it was indeed responsible for the attack on Viktor Koliy: an anomaly in its teeth, probably after an injury from a hook, matched their wounds. Film of the catch showed the Oceanic Whitetip being hauled by its eye sockets onto a small fishing boat, its dead body cut and bloodied, belly slashed. Both creatures had been caught after reaching for bait thrown into the sea by their hunters. A government statement issued in a bid to bring about calm said the Oceanic Whitetip shark was similar to the one photographed by a diver minutes before the first attack. Others insisted it was not the shark and they would be proved right because the Oceanic Whitetip that had been captured and killed did not have the damage to its fin as described by witnesses to the attacks. Also, the wounds inflicted on victims did not match its teeth. What everyone did agree on was that such species of shark normally stay in deep waters, a habit now broken with devastating results. Biologist Dr. Elke Bojanowski said: ‘I was very surprised that the first shark they caught was a Mako shark. I have been working in the Red Sea for seven years and I have never seen a Mako shark underwater in an area like that, close to the reef. Usually they are open-water sharks and do not come so close to the reef.’ In all, some 40 diving instructors volunteered to trawl the waters, but no further sharks were found nearby.

Meanwhile, there was growing criticism of the way the authorities were handling the terror that stalked the waters: warning signs should have been erected after the first attacks, people ought to have been alerted to the danger lurking in the waters and more should have been done to publicise such a monumental occurrence. Furthermore, simply tracking and killing any shark to be found was not enough: it was a random approach and no one was convinced the real killer had been stopped. ‘I have always said that there was no way this could be the work of a single animal,’ said Amr Aboulfatah, former chairman of the South Sinai Association for Diving and Marine Activities, and the owner of a large local dive centre. ‘You’ve got more chance of winning the jackpot in Las Vegas than you do of identifying and then capturing a single shark and thus solving the problem.’ The CDWS agreed with him, saying that it did not ‘in any way condone the random killing of sharks.’ Some conservation groups said that the authorities had originally promised to relocate the rogue shark – or sharks – to the Gulf of Suez, but had instead sent a 12-man team to capture and kill two which are listed as vulnerable on the International Union of the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.

Even more controversially, Amr Ali, director of the Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association (HEPCA), said he had received photographs of ten sharks killed by the authorities. The group accused Egyptian officials of attempting to ‘wipe out local shark populations’. Dr. George Burgess declared a shark hunt to be a waste of time as his team had ruled out the existence of a so-called rogue shark that was acting like a ‘deranged human being taking lives.’ Meanwhile, Dr. Bojanowski said that the random killing of sharks did not help anyone: ‘You put out baited hooks and then a random shark that might have just entered the area and maybe was not even there the day before is just grabbing that baited hook. You could also be attracting sharks to the area. It is not helping the problem. They are very, very self-confident; very, very curious. A shark will actually approach you and check you out – you could probably best describe them as bold.’

But as far as the authorities were concerned the attacking shark had been caught. The waters were therefore re-opened and declared safe but just in case, they drew up instructions for local hotels and diving centres. ‘In line with these instructions, hotels and diving centres will have to appoint special staff, who will permanently supervise swimming areas and, if needed, report sharks approaching beaches,’ announced the Ecology Ministry. The instructions also meant people had to be evacuated from insecure areas if a shark sighting was reported and a shark hunt subsequently launched.

Yet it was no wonder that no one felt reassured – the serial killer of the deep was causing terror equal to that of any disaster movie. And so many knew the killer was still out there. Then came a horrific climax to the attacks.

On 5 December a 70-year-old German woman, Renate Sieffert from Markdof, died in the shark’s jaws. She was already dead when pulled from the water. Her partner, Rudi, could only look on from the beach, his screams and tears mixed with stunned horror. Renate’s death came just 24 hours after the Red Sea was pronounced free of any threat of sharks. Dr. Bojanowski commented: ‘We opened the beaches and everything was normal – there was no shark activity at all that day.’ Renate Sieffert had been a regular guest at the resort’s luxury Hyatt Regency hotel. Diving instructor Ehat Abd Elrahman was with divers completing their open-water qualification when he spotted an Oceanic Whitetip close to the shore and raised the alarm: ‘It was very big – I had never seen one so big. The shark did not pay any attention to us. He did not have any problem with divers but for sure there was something going on, on the surface. I raised my hand to signal that there were sharks in the water, but by then things were already happening.’

Tourists described in graphic detail how the waters went red as the victim snorkelled just 20m (66ft) from the shore. Sieffert’s arm was severed and she died within minutes. Ellen Barnes, 31, a British tourist who was in the water at the time, recalled the scene vividly: ‘I looked behind me and there was this woman thrashing about and screaming for help. The water was full of blood – it was horrific. The shark kept coming up and taking bites out of her and then coming back for more; for another bite. The water was churning like I was in a washing machine; I was being thrown around in the blood. The shark was thrashing and tearing at this poor woman and I could barely keep my head above the water.’

Ms Barnes, from Horsham, Sussex, described the lifeguards at the beach as ‘useless and petrified’. Her partner, Gary Light, 32, shouted to them to get the swimmers out of the water but noted they just stood there: ‘I could see the shark taking bites, and going back and attacking this woman. I was trying to get Ellen and everyone out of the sea. It was ghastly, horrible, like something out of a horror film.’

Ms Barnes went on to criticise the authorities for assuring tourists that the sea was safe: ‘We were kept very much in the dark about it and we were all promised that the sea was safe. We were told that the sharks would not come over the coral as it would scratch their bellies, so that’s why I was out there snorkelling. It is a big shock. The worst thing is that the lifeguards promised there were no more sharks in the sea. I think it is such a shame that the Egyptian Government felt confident enough to send out faxes to all the hotels to say it was safe when obviously it was not.’

Jochen Van Lysebettens, manager of the Red Sea Diving College at the resort, told Sky News: ‘The woman was just swimming to stay in shape. Suddenly there was a scream of “Help!” and a lot of violence in the water. The lifeguard got her on the reef and he noticed she was severely wounded.’

Another swimmer, Inna Koval, described the attack: ‘I was snorkelling a couple of minutes away before the incident. It happened just 100m [328ft] away from me. It came so close. I heard a man who started to scream very loudly. All I could understand was that something was wrong and the word “shark”. I saw the tussle in the water and a tail of a shark for a second above the water. Many people were still swimming. It happened so suddenly that they struggled to get away very quickly. It was so close to the beach where tourists were allowed to swim. No one expected this because the waters are not deep enough and there is coral everywhere. A speed boat which was cruising around came by immediately and circled the victim and the shark, but it couldn’t do anything else. The attack went on for about seven seconds but it was long enough to get its victim.’

Yet another casualty and this time a fatal one for Dr. Dahi. ‘She was already dead when she came to the hospital,’ he recalled. ‘She had an amputated right arm and highly amputated right leg. There was a large wound to the back also – I have never seen this injury before.’

It was enough for the Chamber of Diving and Water Sports (CDWS) to send an urgent message to its members in Sharm El Sheikh ordering them to clear the water. It read: ‘Following reports of another incident in Middle Garden local reef, CDWS is calling for all its members in Sharm el-Sheikh to stop any snorkelling activities happening from any boats or shore. Please tell all your boats to immediately recall any snorkellers who may be in the water.’ Group chairman Hesham Gabr added: ‘We are busy dealing with the crisis. I can confirm that a German woman was injured and she passed away.’

A fuller statement followed: ‘CDWS announced this evening that all diving and watersports have been suspended along the Sharm el-Sheikh coastline tomorrow (Monday 6 December 2010). The suspension comes following a 4th incident in less than one week involving a shark attack on a tourist. Today’s event took place off the beach in front of the Hyatt Hotel, Naama Bay. Unfortunately, the 70-year-old German woman did not survive. Last week, similar attacks took place involving Ukrainian and Russian snorkellers. These incidents led to severe injuries, but no loss of life. CDWS is the regulatory body for diving and water sports in Egypt and would like to emphasise that such attacks are extremely rare and this kind of shark behaviour is causing disbelief amongst the Red Sea diving community.’

The shark attacks in the Red Sea also prompted an official safety warning from the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO). It is a warning which still remains on its information website:

Safety and Security – Adventure Travel

Before undertaking any adventure activity ensure that your travel insurance covers you for the activity.

If you are considering diving or snorkelling in any of the Red Sea resorts be aware that safety standards of diving operators can vary considerably. A basic rule is never to dive or snorkel unaccompanied. Where possible make any bookings through your tour representative. Unusually cheap operators may not provide adequate safety and insurance standards. Ensure that your travel insurance covers you fully before you dive. Diving beyond the depth limit of your insurance policy will invalidate your cover.

The Egyptian Chamber of Diving and Water Sports (CDWS) website provides further details and regular updates on diving conditions in Sharm el-Sheikh, including advice following a number of shark attacks on 30 November, 1 December and 5 December in which a tourist died and three others were injured. Shark attacks of any kind are very unusual in the Red Sea but we advise that you monitor updates issued by the local authorities and your tour operator.

Ensure that your travel insurance covers you fully before you dive. Diving beyond the depth limit of your insurance policy will invalidate your cover. You should also ensure that your travel insurance, or that of the tour or dive company, provides adequate cover for the costs involved in any air/sea rescue if you are lost at sea. The current fee can exceed US$4000 per hour. The Egyptian authorities will only undertake air/sea rescue operations on receipt of a guarantee of payment. The British Embassy is unable to provide this initial guarantee, but does facilitate communication between insurance companies and the Egyptian authorities.

The German Embassy in Cairo, which was involved in returning Renate Sieffert’s body home, said it would not issue a warning to German tourists about the threat of sharks, stating: ‘We look at this as an unfortunate, sad, but classic accident. It is obvious that those who go swimming in the Red Sea should be careful – especially after the incidents of the past few days.’ Salem Saleh, director of Sharm El Sheikh’s tourist authority, had to admit: ‘We did make some efforts last week, but I think we failed.’ Gen el-Edkawy of the South Sinai Government reported no tourists had cancelled trips to the resort following the death. Bent on proving all was well, he donned a wetsuit and jumped into the water just yards away from where Renate Sieffert was attacked. After 20 minutes he emerged, pulled his snorkel mask to one side and announced: ‘I saw a lot of beautiful marine life – it was wonderful, everything is wonderful! This city is a gift from God and I’m sure everything is safe.’

Egypt’s tourism minister Zuhair Garana now declared the Red Sea safe: ‘I cannot say that deep waters are completely secure but shallow waters are 100 per cent secure. Diving is being allowed. We are advised that sharks will not attack divers.’ South Sinai governor Mohammed Shosha lamely proffered: ‘We did catch the sharks – there is another shark.’

That other shark was a female Oceanic Whitetip – and the very one witnessed by those in the shallow waters moments before Renate Sieffert was fatally attacked and before the first victim, Olga Martsinko was savaged. While an ‘innocent’ member of the species had been slaughtered, the real killer – complete with the distinctive fin damage identified by so many and which should have led to a much earlier ceasing of its reign – had been left at large. ‘There were underwater pictures and videos of the shark. She had very distinct markings in her tail mainly. There was a clear indentation at the upper edge of the tail. That was a very rare notch for a shark to have, so she was easy to identify,’ said Dr. Bojanowski.

It is perhaps understandable that no one knew exactly what to do about the predator. The last shark fatality in Egypt – and the first for five years – had been in January of that year but it occurred just south of Marsa Alam, a remote diving area a long way from Sharm El Sheikh, where such attacks are almost unheard of. Indeed, worldwide, statistics proved just how extraordinary the Red Sea Attacks were. According to the International Shark File, which has a global shark database, there had only been nine attacks on humans by Oceanic Whitetips since records began in 1580 and only one of those had been fatal. One diving centre owner claimed the local shark attacks were the first around Sharm El Sheikh for 15 years, although other locals said there had been an attack two years ago and divers claimed they had alerted the authorities to the presence of sharks in the last few months. Ezat Ezat of the Wave Dive Centre said that people want to dive among the sharks: ‘They get angry if there are none around. It’s good for us to go and see the sharks, but not so good when the sharks come and see us.’

Just a few weeks before the shark attacks in Egypt, Dr. Avi Baranes, a scientist at the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences, presented a report to the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities summing up 30 years of research on Red Sea sharks. In an interview with Haaretz.com, Baranes said: ‘Sharks are actually quite nice. It’s true that a violent confrontation between swimmers and sharks is an exceptional event. I think there have only been two cases in all our history: with a British English soldier in 1946 and an attack in Eilat in 1974. Unfortunately, the film Jaws gave sharks a bad name, and unjustifiably so. Many more people are eaten by dogs than by sharks, and this is because sharks are uniquely attached to their own particular food. So, when there are incidents like this, we have to look for a cause. Sharks attack people when they invade their territory, and then their reaction is aggressive, as it is when they are unable to obtain their natural food.’

The marine expert added that a Mako shark attacked a German tourist in 1974 at the popular diving resort of Eilat (the shark was caught the next day and it was found to have a spinal problem and could not swim fast). Said Baranes: ‘This was a shark that usually fed on tuna and it simply could not obtain its regular food. In Sinai I know of cases where sharks simply bit the legs of Bedouin fishermen who were standing on reefs. This is the response to an invasion by humans into the shark’s living space, and this can also happen when divers enter their territory. I suggest we not be afraid of sharks. We must respect them, and we can look at them in the water. I also suggest that we refrain from trying to attack them because they will respond and they have the strength and the means to defend themselves. Just enjoy the view. There is nothing more beautiful than a shark swimming in the sea.’

It was now obvious the authorities had to do more. Again the beaches were closed and signs erected with the warning: ‘As per the latest instructions by the South Sinai Government, please avoid swimming in deep water as there are threats related to sharks.’ Sales of snorkel masks and flippers from the beachside shops dropped. The once-humorous T-shirts with a picture of a shark and the words ‘How ’Bout Lunch?’ were no longer funny.

For some, such actions were not enough after the fatality and other attacks – the threats should have been heeded earlier. Accompanied by his wife, British man Terry Collins was in a party of snorkellers the day before the German tourist was killed and the group had been menaced by an aggressive Oceanic Whitetip shark. ‘It was about 3m [10ft] long. I was about 10m [33ft] behind everyone else. I saw it come out of the depths and it went towards our leader. It circled him and began circling the group. It was deep grey and was that close I could see electric blue fish swimming in front of it. It was circling lazily but with intent,’ he said, adding that on raising his head, he saw people on the snorkel boats shouting warnings. One by one, the snorkellers had to make their way to a reef before swimming about 100m (328ft) across open water to reach the boats. ‘We tried to keep the splashing down,’ Collins wryly observed. His wife, Christina Stafel-Collins, recalled how the party had been forced to flee for safety after the shark circled around them: ‘It was definitely an Oceanic Whitetip. We saw it so close-up. My husband is six foot and it was loads larger than him. I am so upset this woman has died – they should have shut the beaches.’

But tales of shark encounters in the Red Sea kept on coming. British grandfather Gary Young, 65, told how he was scuba diving in 10m- (33ft) deep water off an area known as Shark Reef in the Ras Mohammed National Park when he saw a 2.1m (7ft) female Oceanic Whitetip shark. It came to within 1.8m (6ft) of him. Young, of Felixstowe, Suffolk, gave his account to the Daily Mail: ‘I was with three other divers on an hour-long dive. We were exploring the reef and looking at the fish and sea life. I looked back at my dive buddies and saw they had stopped and there was this shark coming towards us. We moved into the reef as we had been instructed to do if we saw a shark. The idea was that we would blend into the reef and any shark would be less likely to see us as a threat. She didn’t seem aggressive at all. I just stayed calm and did not make any sudden movements which could have encouraged it to attack me. It occurred to me that it could have been the shark which had attacked people and it is fair to say I was a bit apprehensive. It is the closest I have got to a shark in the five years that I have been diving. I certainly would not want to get any closer. It certainly did not put me off going back into the water. You just have to treat these creatures with respect.’ Remarkably unfazed, he captured the moment on his underwater camera. His pictures were sent to those trying to hunt down the predator.

Everyone, it seemed, had their own opinion on the killing waters. Richard Pierce, chairman of the UK-based Shark Trust and Shark Conservation Society, observed: ‘This event is absolutely extraordinary. Since records began in the late sixteenth century there have been only nine recorded attacks on humans by an Oceanic Whitetip. It’s abnormal behaviour; this shark hasn’t just decided to be in the wrong place at the wrong time – there must have been a specific activity or event that brought it there. Something has brought this animal to the area and made it think dinner, and it’s likely that it involves something being put in or on the water.’ Like all others, Richard Pierce described the attacks as ‘unprecedented,’ adding: ‘For either of the two species involved to make repeated attacks on humans is unheard of. They simply do not go around attacking people for fun. To see so many attacks in such a short space of time is terrifying and very difficult to understand. Behind this, there is undoubtedly some kind of human trigger.’ Certainly, it was unusual to see the species as far north as Sharm El Sheikh at that time of year. The creatures may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time – but then, tragically so too were the victims.

Simon Rogerson, editor of Dive magazine, commented: ‘If someone asked me a few weeks ago about the resort, I’d have said it was very safe. Generally, it’s a really good place. It gets very crowded because it is relatively cheap for Europeans, but the coral environment is very healthy, very beautiful; the water’s clear and it’s sunny. Whatever is going on there is an anomaly.’

So, just what had incited the worst-ever recorded number of shark attacks that brought such devastation? Again, theories abounded. One came from Marcus Maurer, manager of the Extra Dive Centre, whose staff had been involved in rescuing the victims. He blamed the very people on whom the resort relies – tourists. ‘These are open-water sharks,’ he explained. ‘The biggest problem is people feeding the fish. The fish are an attraction, people like to see them but if people throw food in the water, the fish come inside the reef and maybe the sharks follow the fish. They are changing the behaviour of the animals. Along the beaches, notices in several languages say “All unused food and packaging must be put in the garbage container. Food may not be eaten in the sea or within a 4ft (1.5m) perimeter around the sea”. Divers know how to react in the presence of a shark. They know to stay calm, don’t kick or swim fast – and don’t beat the shark.’

Maurer added that he had made more than 3,000 dives in over 13 years and had never had a problem with sharks, but snorkellers and swimmers with no experience or training simply panicked: ‘Then the sharks start to hunt. People have got to learn it’s not our territory, it’s the territory of the animals. If we go there, we have to respect the marine life.’ But it is hard to tell the thousands of children who go to Sharm El Sheikh and feed the brightly coloured fish as part of their holiday excitement that they could be attracting a killer to their feet. How are they to know that lurking so close by, sharks will pick up the pulsed vibrations sent out by shoals of fish gathering titbits and in turn attracting predators and becoming a meal themselves? And who heeds the ‘Do not feed the fish’ signs that are present in several different languages? ‘The whole trigger is food. Nothing else makes sense,’ says shark behaviourist Erich Ritter.

The unique drop in the depth of the water at this particular stretch of Red Sea beach was also given serious consideration: the reef area is very shallow around the floating pontoon area but then suddenly ‘stairsteps’ down, dropping off from a depth of 20m (66ft) or 30m (98ft) to more than 800m (2,624ft) – but still very close to the beach. Ralph Collier explains: ‘You usually find Oceanic Whitetip sharks in waters 300m (984ft) deep or more. Because of this stairstep effect, it is not uncommon to see Oceanic Whitetips within 3m of the beach.’ The investigating team also discovered the temperature of the water around Sharm El Sheikh was several degrees higher than normal for the time of year and had been over the weeks when the attacks took place. Water temperature has a direct effect on the metabolism of all species of shark. The higher the temperature, the higher the metabolic rate – meaning the shark needs more food and energy to exist. This makes them more active in hunting and increasingly aggressive in their behaviour because they want to feed. The Mako shark previously caught and dissected was found to be undernourished, implying a desperate need for food no matter where it came from. ‘This animal was probably extremely hungry. It was very slim, almost emaciated. That is uncommon for Makos – their body structure is such that they are a well-built, stocky shark but this animal was not,’ said Collier.

Other experts insisted that humans were again very much to blame. Divers and dive operators keen to give their clients a memorable experience were illegally feeding fish to sharks in the waters around Sharm El Sheikh also came under fire. (In some countries you will find the illegal practices of baited dives and ‘chumming’ – fish blood or flesh placed in the water to attract sharks and keep divers happy.) ‘This is not feeding. It is rather like one of us walking past McDonald’s and sniffing the air. It attracts sharks,’ said Richard Pierce. In South Africa, the Shark Concern Group has campaigned to ban shark-cage diving and chumming because it believes that it leads to sharks such as the Great Whites seeking out human company, claiming, ‘risks have increased as a result of how humans are interacting with sharks.’ But Pierce believes feeding sharks is a bigger risk than chumming: ‘There is no scientific evidence that proves that laying chum in the water for the attraction of sharks produces conditioned behaviour. In one area of South Africa there are nine boats going out on two trips a day, chumming the hell out of anything to attract sharks for tourists. If this was producing conditioned behaviour we would expect to be seeing the same sharks there every day but we don’t. The sharks have been tagged and observed, so we know. Conversely there is evidence to show that when you feed sharks, you do produce an element of conditioning. Certainly, in places where sharks are fed for tourism – in the Caribbean, for example – it has been proved that sharks have learned to associate the arrival of feed boats with being fed.’

Some disagreed, however. Shark dive operator Jim Abernethy said he believed that sharks were not inherently dangerous and went on to compare them to birds: ‘Feeding the birds is an opportunity for people to get close to these animals and feed them. Birdwatchers feed birds, but every now and then a bird will bite a person by mistake.’ Abernethy has his supporters. Peter Knights, executive director of WildAid (a non-profit organisation with the aim of ending illegal wildlife trade) has dived with Abernethy several times: ‘I’ve never been on a dive with chumming. Jim puts bait in a suspended crate, which leaves a trail of oil, not blood so it’s better than chumming. The argument that sharks associate boats with food is silly because fishing boats throw bits of dead fish off the back and that industry puts more fish back that way than all dive boats combined.’ Knights sees diving trips such as Abernethy’s as a good method for shark tourism: ‘You get people inspired and understand that sharks are not killing machines but wild animals that are sometimes unpredictable and will attack if they’re confused or scared, but humans are not on their list. And if sharks get used to having people in the water, they’ll realise what humans are – not food and not a threat.’

Dr. George Burgess, curator of the International Shark Attack File, disagrees with this view and does not see a difference between chumming and feeding sharks because whether it’s scent or chum, sharks react primarily to olfactory signals. To prove his point, he cited the case of Markus Groh, an Austrian diver who died from a shark bite on one of Abernethy’s dives in the Bahamas in 2008. Groh’s ‘chum bag’ was said to have been grabbed by a shark: ‘It doesn’t matter whether it’s called “chum”, a “chumbag” or food, the animals go after it,’ says Dr. Burgess. ‘It’s the equivalent of going to Africa, where a pride of lions are hanging out under a tree and dumping a bunch of T-bone steaks on the ground. That would be called dumb if you did it with lions, alligators or bears, so why do we think we can do it with the largest and most efficient predators in the ocean?’ Burgess believes the dive industry tries to keep shark attacks quiet: ‘Most of the cases we have on the International Shark Attack File are leaked to us. These operations are out there to make money. That’s not a sin – they’re trying to offer something one step above the average for people looking for thrills and the unusual. I suspect that a lot of the clients who come to these things are less naturalist-divers than people who want to be entertained.’

Simon Rogerson, editor of Dive magazine, agrees: ‘If you were to suggest deliberately putting fishy blood and bait in the water in other countries, you’d be politely laughed off the boat.’ Indeed, the practice is virtually training these creatures to expect food from outstretched human arms. Sometimes sharks become so conditioned to the arrival of dive boats that just the sound of an engine revving up is the equivalent of a dinner bell. Video evidence of the practice with a diver feeding fish to an Oceanic Whitetip in the Red Sea was shown to the investigating team. ‘They hold the fish in their hand and as the shark gets very close, they would release the fish and the shark would chomp down and swim behind them. At that point the diver would reach out behind and pull out another fish from his pack. Over a given length of time, sharks become habituated to it – just as your family pet would, if you were teaching it new tricks. That’s why the animal has such determined behaviour around people. It is looking for something and if it doesn’t receive it, there is a high probability that you will be bitten,’ explains Ralph Collier of the Shark Research Committee.

Indeed the practice could have been going on in Sharm El Sheikh’s waters for over a year and Collier believes that a shark trained to take fish from a diver may have approached some of its victims, thinking they had food. ‘The first reaction a human has, of course, is to fend off and at that point the victims stretch out a hand and the shark bits it off, thinking it was a fish,’ adds Collier. Red Sea rescue diver Hossam El-Hamalawy agrees: ‘This should be a reminder that the ocean is the shark’s natural habitat and that we are visitors there. When we begin messing with the inhabitants’ behavioural patterns, when we begin messing with their environment, then the consequences can be serious. I’m surprised the government has just woken up and discovered this overnight – the problem of the tourist industry damaging the ecology of the Red Sea has been going on for three decades and yet nothing has been done about it.’

This would go a long way to explaining the abnormal frenzied attacks by the sharks – ceaselessly biting at humans rather than the usual one investigative bite before swimming off in search of more suitable prey. Three of the five Red Sea victims were bitten over and over. ‘Most of the time a shark bites a human once to figure out what it could be. To bite multiple times is very, very rare but we realised that all the bites seemed to be in the same area of the body – hands, legs and buttocks,’ says Collier. ‘It is not unusual for a limb to be bitten by a shark because generally that is the easiest thing for the animal to grab when it comes up to investigate. However, it is highly unusual for the victims to sustain wounds both to the hands and the buttocks area by the same shark.’

The most shocking aspect of the shark-feeding video was that the creature involved was the killer female Oceanic Whitetip and the explanation would go some way towards explaining its highly unusual, continuous attack on Renate Sieffert. Biologist Dr. Bojanowski adds: ‘None of the bites looked like a test bite checking for something to eat; it looked more like the female shark was feeding and had somehow crossed the line of not identifying people as a food source.’

Simon Rogerson agrees with this view: ‘I’ve heard reports of these approaches getting more and more aggressive. I think the thing is that the longer you spend in the water with this particular shark, the bolder it gets, and the more it tries to test you. To most sharks, human beings aren’t edible and I’ve no idea whether an Oceanic Whitetip could thrive off a human but these sharks have got a history of being a danger to people who are in the water for a long, long time.’ Rogerson believes scuba divers are at less risk than snorkellers, though: ‘Divers have more control, and more awareness, of what’s around them. Also, in nature, if something’s floating on the surface, it looks as if it’s injured so it becomes more of a target. These attacks have been happening to snorkellers who are just pootling off resort beaches and the chances are they’re not wearing wetsuits. There’s all that white flesh and that seems to attract sharks – it’s the colour of fish flesh, after all. Most sharks like to sneak up on their prey – they don’t like being seen – and that’s easier if someone’s snorkelling.’ Of the attack on Renate Sieffert, shark behaviourist Erich Ritter adds: ‘In a way it was if the shark had an agenda. It was not exploration, it was not a defensive wound – it just really went after her.’

Another theory came from the CDWS’s Hisham Gabr. He blamed Australian live sheep exporters, passing through on their way to the Suez Canal and throwing any dead sheep into the sea. ‘I know for a fact that sheep have been thrown into the water by a boat,’ said Gabr. ‘I don’t know the quantities, I don’t know the numbers and I know it was more than once because divers saw it. They saw the sheep thrown into the water and there was a ship passing by, carrying sheep in the Gulf of Aqaba, passing through the Straits of Tiran.’ Dr. Bojanowski adds: ‘Oceanic Whitetip sharks have a very widespread interest in different food items and carcasses of different kinds. If carcasses are being dumped and are drifting to the shore this will have a great effect on the movement and distribution of the shark, which is a known scavenger.’

This was all disputed by Australian meat and livestock export manager Peter Dundon. He said that although dead sheep were thrown overboard, maritime law forbids this in the narrow waterway near Sharm El Sheikh, and added: ‘To my knowledge, there’s been no Australian livestock vessel through there in that period. There’s restriction of 100km [62 miles] for the closest land that whole dead sheep are not able to be disposed of. My experience on the vessels is that the master, who is responsible for that happening, enforces adherence to those international maritime laws very strictly.’

Over-fishing may have forced sharks closer to shore to find food. Warnings of this type of danger had already been aired as recently as August 2010 – just three months before the shark attacks began. The use of large nets has decimated the sea’s fish populations, as well as endangering coral reefs and other marine life. Mahmoud Hanafy, Red Sea governor, professor of marine biology at the University of Suez and environmental adviser to the Hurghada Environment Protection and Conservation Association (HEPCA), is a leading figure in the process of halting the devastating effects of over-fishing. He said: ‘Sharks, turtles and marine mammals, including dolphins and dugongs, all fall prey to these acts of fishing.’ The practice also drives sea creatures such as sharks – attracted by the abundance of fish lured by regular feeding from holidaymakers – into shallow waters. Hanafy also points out how the average 20,000 tons of fish caught every year in the Red Sea is ‘far surpassing the recommended sustainable limit of between 900 and 1,500 tons.’

According to statistics published by the General Authority for Fisheries Resources Development (GAFRD) – an organisation affiliated to the Ministry of Agriculture, Egypt’s annual fish catch is over one million tons, coming from the local waters of the Mediterranean and Red Sea, the Nile River and lakes, and fish farms but it’s a challenge to bring home the realities of over-fishing to the 200,000 local fishermen and workers employed in the industry, whose livelihoods depend on it. They already know that they are catching fewer fish than during the 1990s. Efforts to combat over-fishing in the Red Sea include the Hurghada Declaration. Signed in June 2009, the Declaration seeks to ban all net-fishing and trawling in the Red Sea with the exception of the area north of the Gulf of Suez. It also aims to establish ‘no-take’ zones, making certain areas free of any fishing activity. The Hurghada Declaration – named after one of the Red Sea’s other major tourist areas – was drawn up and signed by HEPCA in conjunction with the Red Sea Governorate, the South Sinai Governate and the Ministries of Agriculture and Environment.

Some theories were less convincing, with one being that the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad was behind the attacks in an attempt to wreck the Egyptian tourist industry. The governor of South Sinai, General Abdel-Fadeel Shosha announced this theory at a meeting (and no doubt went on to bitterly regret it). As witty observers noted: ‘Whether this was an Israeli agent in a shark costume, a specially indoctrinated Zionist shark, or a remote-controlled cybershark, the General does not elaborate, but he does say the theory needs investigating.’ Speaking on the public TV programme Egypt Today on 5 December 2010, a specialist introduced as ‘Captain Mustafa Ismail, a famous diver in Sharm El Sheikh’ said that the sharks involved in the attacks are ocean sharks and do not live in Egypt’s waters. Asked how the shark entered Sharm El Sheikh waters, he replied: ‘No, it’s who let them in.’ Urged to elaborate, Ismail said that he recently received a call from an Israeli diver in Eilat telling him that they had captured a small shark with a Global Positioning System (GPS) planted on its back, implying the sharks were monitored to attack in Egypt’s waters only. On the Sky News Middle East blog Dominic Waghorn retorted: ‘Israelis get blamed for a lot in this part of the world, but Egyptian officials have plumbed new depths of pottiness with their latest Zionist conspiracy theory.’ Meanwhile, Israeli officials rejected the notion as ‘ludicrous’, with Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Igal Palmor telling the BBC: ‘The General must have seen Jaws one time too many and is confusing fact and fiction.’

On 9 December 2011, Egypt’s ministry of tourism confirmed it would offer $50,000 (£31,000) in compensation to each of the Russian tourists attacked by sharks. The money came from private tourist companies in Sharm El Sheikh. A spokesman confirmed: ‘The payment will be made by private Egyptian companies, such as hotels and diving clubs, not the Ministry of Tourism.’

On 11 December 2010, the committee of experts, which as well as the Americans included Moustafa Fouda of the Ministry of State for Environmental Affairs, Mohammad Salem, Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, and Nassar Galal, Chamber of Diving and Water Sports, presented its findings, which still did not contain the definitive reason for the attacks. The report summarised several theories:

 The illegal dumping of sheep carcasses by animal transport vessels within 1.9km (1.2 miles) of the shore.

 The unique underwater topography of the area – i.e. deep water very close to shore allowing pelagic sharks and humans to swim in close proximity.

 Although fishing is restricted in the Sharm El Sheikh region, uncontrolled fishing in the Red Sea has depleted fish stocks and reduced the amount of natural prey available to sharks.

 Shark and human population dynamics; five million people visit Sharm El Sheikh annually and numbers of sharks migrate through the area each year.

 Feeding of fish by glass-bottomed boats and swimmers drew the sharks close to the beach.

 Elevated sea temperatures resulted in higher metabolic rates in the sharks and increased their energy (food) requirements.

 Although prohibited, it is believed that some dive operators have been feeding the sharks, which could have habituated the sharks to humans as a source of food.

Nevertheless, the report recommended that the beaches at Sharm El Sheikh be re-opened. There was a list of conditions, including the erection of 6m- (19ft) high watchtowers manned by trained lifeguards at regular intervals, swimming being restricted to designated areas – and a total ban on ‘recreational shark feeding’. Dr. George Burgess, who headed up the investigation, said that his team believed someone ‘accustomed the sharks to being fed and whoever did it has stopped,’ but he added: ‘The sea is a wilderness, just like a jungle. It can never be made entirely safe for humans, in Sharm El Sheikh or any other resort – we can only try to reduce the odds.’

That same day, Olga Martsinko’s daughter Elena spoke of how ill her mother still was. What was left of her arm had had to be amputated and she had undergone emergency plastic surgery to her thigh and buttock. Her body was swathed in bandages from where surgeons had taken skin from her hip to try and cover the hole on the buttock. Another operation was necessary. Said Elena: ‘My mother can only lie on her tummy because there is a hole instead of a left buttock. Inside the hole you can see the base of her spinal cord. It is impossible for her to move around with such a large hole in her body. I told her we should go back to Moscow to a hospital there. She said she would try to stand and walk a bit, but she lifted herself up and fell back, unconscious from the pain.’ Six weeks on, Olga was still in hospital.

A week after Elena’s statement came the official announcement: ‘Tourism in South Sinai has absolutely not been affected’. Indeed, the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh had actually seen a rise in tourists booking for the Christmas and New Year season. The authorities introduced $50,000 (£31,000) fines for hotels and diving centres feeding the fish and fines of up to $15,000 (£9,000) for tourists who also did so. In addition, there are penalties for diving boats throwing waste into the sea or allowing clients to feed fish. These include suspension of the diving business from one month to six months and a withdrawal of their licence in the case of reoccurring violations.

Not everyone shared the optimism that all this would bring back tourism to the area, however. Hamdi Abdelazim, economy expert and former president of the Cairo-based Sadat Academy for Administrative Sciences, perhaps shared the thoughts of many: ‘It is only natural that tourism, especially resort tourism, would be impacted following a string of shark attacks.’ And, as one tour guide noted: ‘Tourists come just for the sea, so if there is no opportunity to go to the sea, there is no reason to come here.’

In fact, the massive numbers of tourists entering the Red Sea every year could even be part of the ever-growing shark problems. ‘Population dynamics are one of the primary factors in shark-human interactions. The fewer the people, the less likely chance you are going to have of encountering a shark. The more people you have, you increase that probability. Now you have interactions between the animal that is hunting and humans, especially when you look at the number of people who utilise the resort over the year,’ said Ralph Collier of the Shark Research Committee. Until the 1970s, Sharm El Sheikh was a remote Bedouin fishing village with an empty, unspoiled coastline. Now it is the most popular resort in Egypt, with just a 8km (5-mile) stretch of beach to accommodate the millions of swimmers, snorkellers and divers. Hotels, keen to cash in on the allure of the water, coral reef and prolific sea life, all have their own jetties and pontoons from the beach.

On 14 December, the CDWS issued an update announcing that although beaches were open, there were still restrictions on diving and watersports in the Red Sea ‘while safety assessments continue following the shark attacks.’ The Chamber said that it wanted ‘to reassure its members that it is constantly monitoring the situation and gradually hopes to lift the restrictions in the near future. However, the organization has underlined its priority in any decisions in the safety of visitors and its members.’ Any divers still wishing to enter the Red Sea now had to be fully qualified with at least 50 logged dives and could only enter the waters with CDWS members in the area of Tiran, dive sites south of Naama Bay to Ras Mohammed National Park and the park itself. Diving was still completely banned between Ras Nasranie to the north of the Naama Bay jetty and no shore diving permitted anywhere in the Sharm El Sheikh area, with the warning ‘Under NO circumstances are introductory or training dives permitted to take place in the sea anywhere in Sharm El Sheikh until CDWS members are advised otherwise’. Snorkelling and other watersports were still restricted along the whole of the Sharm El Sheikh coastal area, with the exception of glass-bottomed boat trips.

The South Sinai Hotels Chamber held a meeting attended by tour operators, tourist officials and South Sinai governorate officials in an attempt to explain the confusion over just how safe the Red Sea was. South Sinai Governor Major General Mohamed Abdel Fadeel Shousha said: ‘This situation will continue until all technical studies, topographic surveys of the area and surveys of the sea bottom are executed by the researchers of the Suez Canal Authority. These experts from several fields are examining ways to secure the area in order that snorkelling can resume. All commercial vessels that enter or pass by Sharm El Sheikh will have to be accompanied by Egyptian officials until they exit Egyptian waters so as to make sure they don’t throw dead animal or harmful substances into the Red Sea.’

General rules for safety when divers encountered sharks were issued by Dr. Elke Bojanowski:

 Only enter the water if you are comfortable with the situation and confident that you can stay calm.

 Do not enter the water if there is any sign of feeding activity around the boat.

 Be aware that you are most vulnerable on the surface, so control your buoyancy at all times.

 Avoid erratic movements.

 If you want (or need) to leave the water, do so in a calm and orderly fashion.

 Try to avoid surfacing straight above a shark swimming below you.

 To avoid Oceanic Whitetips coming too close for your comfort, staying next to, or retreating to the reef might help.

 Do not try to touch or in any way harass a shark.

 Do not be alarmed by a shark calmly circling you. Just make sure to turn with it and keep it in sight.

 Stay alert and look around you from time to time to see if another shark is approaching you from behind/underneath/above, otherwise one might sneak up to you.

 Generally, sharks are more reluctant to closely approach groups of divers than single ones.

 Remember, you are in the water with a wild predator whose behavior will never be 100% predictable!

On 22 December 2010, the saga of the serial shark attacks took a strange turn with the claim that the Oceanic Whitetip responsible for the attacks had been killed by a drunken Serb. This bizarre story involved a man called Dragan Stevie allegedly hurling himself off a diving board into the Red Sea, landing on the head of the shark and instantly killing it. The report even included an account from Stevie’s ‘friend’ Milovan Ubirapa, who witnessed the incident: ‘Dragan climbed on the jumping board, told me to hold his beer and simply ran to jump. There was no time for me to react or try to stop him; he just went for it. He jumped high and plunged down to the sea, but didn’t make as much of a splash as we thought he would.’

This hoax account became an internet sensation but was dismissed when its source was revealed as a satirical American newspaper called The Onion. The shark featured was a Basking shark – and one that had washed up not on the beach at Sharm El Sheikh at the height of the terror reign but off the coast of North Carolina, a year earlier.

The threat of further shark attacks diminished when they migrated away from Sharm El Sheikh at the beginning of 2011, but they return each autumn. And the female serial-killer shark is still alive. It is highly likely that when she returns to the crystal-clear waters, she will again turn them red. Said Ralph Collier: ‘As much as I am against euphemising any animal, I believe this shark has become habituated to humans and should be removed from the environment because its potential to do this again is very high.’ Dr. George Burgess agreed: ‘To catch that animal, you are going to have to find it first – that’s a lot of expenditure in human time. But in the end, what have you got? Sure, you have some retribution for what it did, but you have no assurance it won’t do it again, and no assurance its mates won’t do it again. These are open-ocean sharks that are living in an environment that is food-poor so when you do find food, you darn well better take advantage of it! Do they remember things? Sure, they remember where the good places to eat were and they’ll come back but they are not connect-the-dots sort of animals. They are basically swimming, sensory machines. Sometimes we make mistakes and sometimes they make mistakes. And sometimes we just happen to be in the wrong place at the right time – for them.’

Sharm El Sheikh resident ‘Crowley’ reflected on the events in the Red Sea from a professional diver’s viewpoint in The Equalizer online magazine:

It’s been an interesting few weeks. The restrictions on training or intro dives and snorkelling have meant a downturn in business for a lot of operators, and media hype and misinformation have not helped – some people have literally cancelled their diving experiences because they were afraid to get into the water. Others were understandably unwilling to pay extra in order to relocate to Dahab every day. For the staff it’s been uncertain. You can’t work if you can’t get in the water and most dive professionals in Sharm are paid in commission so for sure the shark attacks have impacted our income this month. Having said that, the impending collapse of the Eurozone and frozen airports have not been of assistance.

Talk of sharks has of course been the buzz of the town with everybody turning into armchair Sharm El Sheikh shark experts overnight. Our dive briefings included some extra pointers on how to deal with a shark in close proximity, and I think many guides – including myself – would admit to a few nerves at certain dive sites, particularly since the female thought to be responsible for some of the attacks (including the fatality) has been seen at Shark and Yolanda quite regularly.

The ‘likely causes’ for the attack were already the centre of discussion around the beer table long before any real scientists arrived. This is not meant as a slight to the experts – but it would seem there is a wealth of information here that nobody ever used. With a few notable exceptions such as Dr. Bojanowski, there is very little research into shark populations in the region and yet for thirty years this has been one of the most popular dive destinations on the planet. We write shark encounters on the ‘Daily Sightings’ board every few days in summer – and most of that doesn’t get any further.

I don’t think the dive industry will suffer long term but the last few weeks have made some people think (and a few unemployed!) and a tragic event might have a long-term positive outcome if more research and education into sharks in the Red Sea is properly implemented. We are all very hopeful that the situation will improve for the tourists, for the staff here – and indeed for the shark population. Until then, it’s still beautiful here!

For sure, the last chapter of this tragic series of events has not been written and there have been rumours of sharks being caught and killed. The question is, if this has been as retribution or as a preventive measure, or if there has been a reason at all.

According to Ahram Online the South Sinai Governor’s secretary, General Ahmad Saleh, said in an interview that there are watchtowers with professional lifeguards checking movements by sharks in the water. In addition, Zodiacs are patrolling the area looking for signs of danger. Furthermore the authorities are searching for the best places to install protective nets.

One question is what the lifeguards in the towers are looking for exactly? It’s hard enough to spot a shark while diving, so how can it help to look out from the beach? Another question is what good the nets will do and how they have to be designed to fit the underwater topography of the Red Sea. Historically, those kinds of nets have caught more sharks going out to sea than coming into the beaches, plus managed to kill turtles and other marine life.

All diving restrictions put in place following the shark incidents in Sharm El Sheikh were lifted 22 December 2010. The Equalizer extends our sympathy to the victims and their families.’

On 13 January, the Egyptian Government of the South Sinai banned all fishing in Sharm El Sheikh, as well as the resorts of Dahab, Nuweiba, Taba and all along the Gulf of Aqaba. The move followed a series of findings that the shark attacks may in some part have been linked to the depletion of their natural food source and overfishing.

On 25 January 2011, the Sharm Business & Community Magazine aired its discontent over what it saw as the continued lack of effort by local authorities to ensure the Red Sea resorts were luring back visitors:

We understand that some people won’t be happy to open the subject of shark attacks again, hoping instead that it will be forgotten. The magazine would like to tell them not to put their head in the sand like an ostrich and stop pretending that nothing has happened. It is a fact that there has been an impact on tourism and that impact has led to a bad economy in the city. We know that the relevant authorities who are supposed to be in harmony to solve the dilemma are not doing enough. The situation, according to the information we have, is still not clear. We have heard a lot of announcements in the local and world media from unprofessionals. These announcements have served only to make everybody more confused. The magazine has received many mails and calls from readers and tourists from different nationalities asking whether they can come to Sharm and use the beaches yet or not. We have been trying to reassure them that what happened was an unusual series of accidents, and that the city is full of other alternatives which they can enjoy so much.

In February 2011, reporter Jennifer Reade noted that the Red Sea resorts had started to see ‘a small increase’ in tourism, before adding: ‘After all the shark attacks that took place during last year, most of the beaches were left empty and some souvenir sellers and other retail establishments who have businesses in Sharm El Sheikh say they are struggling to stay afloat. A couple of sun seekers dressed in their summer gear explored the predominantly desolate town centre with its abandoned Bedouin-style coffee shops. One of the tourists from Devon in south-western England, who was travelling with his wife and ten-year-old twins said he is pleased that the town is empty and that there are no Russians around. The family booked their holiday prior to the shark attacks.’

That same month travelweekly reported that travel companies were continuing to fly holidaymakers out to Sharm El Sheikh, but this announcement had nothing to do with shark attacks. Massive anti-government demonstrations were rocking Egypt’s main cities and reassurance was needed that they were a long way from the Red Sea tourist hot spot, where the tourist trade was already so badly damaged.

On 23 February the South Sinai Governor issued a ‘decree’ allowing all shore diving activities and shore house reef diving activities in all Sharm El Sheikh areas. Then, on 9 March 2011, a British couple told a chilling story to the Sun newspaper. Richard King, 32, and his partner Laura Hooper, 29, said they had watched in horror from a dive boat as a 5m (16ft) Tiger shark ripped at a female corpse floating in the waters off Sharm El Sheikh. They were less than a third of a mile from shore. Incredibly, the dive crew insisted on continuing with the trip and refused to act on what had been seen. Instead they told Richard and Laura (and five other tourists with them) not to mention the incident. Said salesman Richard, from Swindon, Wiltshire: ‘The crew saw the shark soon after leaving Sharm Beach for a day’s scuba-diving. As we got closer, we clocked that it had been feeding on a human body. Laura ran into the boat in tears. We were asked by the crew not to say anything as it would be bad for tourism. We couldn’t believe it when there were people swimming in the water the next day – there was no mention of sharks in the water or a dead body.’

Indeed so horrified were the couple by the whole event, they cut short their holiday and flew home. The dive centre concerned insisted the crew had reported the body during the trip and that all the holidaymakers had said they wanted to continue. Police later recovered the body and began an inquiry. A spokesman for the tour operator insisted the incident had been reported by the dive crew on their return but added: ‘It was not a shark attack that killed that person.’ Dr. Adel Taher, director of the Hyperbaric Medical Centre in Sharm El Sheikh, said he examined the woman’s body and that her death was not due to a shark attack but due to drowning and subsequent propeller injuries.

The story of the Red Sea sharks goes further: not only are they the hunters but the hunted, too. In June 2010, six Yemeni fishing boats were intercepted and found to have several lengths of long lines on board, as well as more than twenty tons of dead sharks. This was despite a 2005 ban on shark fishing in a bid to halt declining numbers of the world’s once-highest shark population. Most local shark fishermen had heeded the ban but during the shark season of 2010, an influx of foreign fishermen once more threatened the sharks of the Red Sea. Said Amr Ali, HEPCA’s managing director: ‘Our local fishermen were never interested in sharks – nobody likes the meat; it’s bulky and sells very cheaply. About a decade ago the Chinese started showing up here. They taught our fishermen that they could get good money by selling the fins and they didn’t have to bring the whole animal back. They could just cut off the fins and put the rest back in the water.’

Egypt’s ban is only effective within 20km (12 miles) of the coastline. Beyond that, the waters of the Red Sea are fair game for fishermen. Dive boat captains have reported that off the coasts of Sudan and Entrea, long-line shark fishing – long fishing lines with thousands of baited hooks – is ‘out of control’. In an attempt to curb shark fishing, the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC), in charge of managing fisheries in the Red Sea, has implemented regulations. These state that shark fins must not exceed 5 per cent of the weight of the shark carcasses on board, but this is hard to control. Said Ali: ‘Our shark protection laws have given sharks in the Egyptian Red Sea a chance to reproduce safely, but it has also made us a target for every shark fisherman in the region.’ As one naturalist observed: ‘It would be a shame to see the Red Sea sharks suffer a similar fate as those of the Mediterranean. However, as we are seeing now, the fishermen have apparently moved into the precious Red Sea at full steam. Unless action is taken immediately, we may ultimately witness the decimation of one of the world’s last remaining shark strongholds.’

In July 2011, HEPCA announced an all-out programme to preserve the sharks of the Red Sea:

Shark populations worldwide have been pushed to the brink of extinction within the last few decades. Millions die every year because of the insatiable human demand for shark fins and the highly destructive, unselective fishing methods practised by the industry around the globe.

The sharks’ disappearance is worrying on a number of levels. As top oceanic predators, they are of fundamental importance to the balance of the marine ecosystem. Removing them on a large scale has severe consequences through succeeding layers of the marine food web. It has altered other species’ abundance, distribution and diversity, and impacted the health of a variety of marine habitats, including sea grass beds and coral reefs. A recovery from depletion is hard to accomplish since most of the larger shark species have a very low reproductive potential; they take years to reach sexual maturity and produce very few young.

Besides ecological considerations, the high economic value of living sharks is being recognized by more and more countries. Shark diving is a growing industry; the interest in encountering sharks underwater creates far more revenue than the one-time profit to be gained from killing them.

All these factors have researchers and conservationist campaigning to convince lawmakers and governmental bodies to finally step up and include more shark species in their protection schemes. Their efforts are hampered by the lack of available information on basic population parameters and life history patterns of many of the depleted shark species, which are necessary to create and implement effective conservation programs.

Similar problems apply to the numerous shark species living in the Red Sea. Fishing pressure has (and has had) an impact of unknown magnitude, and – despite local or regional regulations – no protective legislation for the area as a whole exists. And while the sharks’ economic value, especially for the Egyptian tourism sector, is undisputed, scientific data is scarce; information on population status and ecological needs are insufficient or don’t exist at all.

To rectify that situation, the Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association is launching a comprehensive research project on Red Sea Sharks, using such diverse methods as a volunteer monitoring program, photo-identification, electronic tracking, and dedicated surveys.

Overall aim is to collect data on species distribution, residency and migration patterns to identify critical habitats for feeding, mating and giving birth. It is this kind of information that will be crucial for designing and managing effective protection measures.

The diving professionals in the Red Sea will be called upon in the future to help in monitoring the shark populations in the Egyptian Red Sea. Their experience and ongoing daily activities in the water make them perfect volunteers, who can provide us with a wealth of information.

One species has already proven to be highly accessible to photo-identification techniques. Over the past 6 years, more than 20,000 underwater photographs of Oceanic Whitetip Sharks (Carcharhinus longimanus) have been analysed to create a catalogue that contains more than 500 individuals.

Greatly advanced tracking devices are being used to monitor the secret life of the shark. Tags that store information on temperature, pressure and light levels can be attached to marine creatures for longer periods of time. They release themselves from the shark at a predetermined time and then transmit the data to satellites passing above. In 2010 a pilot project was launched to fit two Oceanic Whitetip sharks with tags for one and two months respectively during Egypt’s winter season. Said Dr. Elke Bojanowski, who headed up the project: ‘The data gained from these two individuals will provide the first insights into the sharks’ diving behaviour and movement patterns in the Red Sea. These results will help us to design a more extensive future tagging project, ultimately aiming at identifying critical habitat for the species, including major feeding areas, breeding and nursery grounds.’