Jerry Buirski
In 2012 Shark Stories by Al J Venter and Friends was published, and after many years we finally have a follow-up in More Shark Stories. There are very few books on South African underwater literature and Al Venter has by far been the most prolific.
With More Shark Stories Al J Venter he has now done a dozen marine titles, and it is sure to be another popular addition to bookshelves. More commonly known as a long-time war correspondent, especially in Africa, he has also made dozens of documentaries, including one of the first about the Soviet incursion into Afghanistan. He spent most of his professional career reporting on wars for Jane’s Information Group, as well as for various news and photo agencies. Through it all his love for the sea remained, and he was still doing SCUBA diving when already deep into his seventies.
Once again there are a number of stories and reminiscences about meeting sharks in their own domain, and these vary from amusing through interesting to quite horrific, and it is difficult to believe just how many dangerous sharks some divers have met with in their lifetimes, and most of them are still going to sea regularly. More than anything, as Jerry Buirski wrote about in his own book, You Should have been here Yesterday, even an apex predator like great white sharks are often just curious, and having had a good look at you it would then go on its way to wherever.
Both authors write from their extensive underwater experience and have collected shark encounter stories from a wide selection of divers and spearos, most of whom would be well known to the South African underwater fraternity. Jamila Janna writes about the Shark Spotters while Julia Evans gives some perspective on great white shark numbers and the threats to them.
Here are some extracts:
I normally talk a lot. But I didn’t say a word for hours after my experience. I was so grateful to be safe. Mostly I was processing what I had seen; the most beautiful, quiet, menacing creature in his element, patrolling his undersea domain.
Penny Bird
The great white chased everyone out of the water, though, and while sitting in the boat, hearts beating and suffused with adrenalin, we saw that the camera was not on Campbell’s head anymore. On asking him where it was he slapped his head, his eyes widened in shock, and then jumped straight back into the water (with the great white still around) to go and look for it! Well, that was the last straw and we reluctantly had to give up, driving the boat through the yellowtail shoals as we left the banks, our very exciting day gone to the bottom together with the GoPro.
Martin van der Merwe
While busy lining up the second one, a monstrous great white came around the corner. Time to get out of there. On turning around I saw another very big white, not much smaller than the other one, coming from the open water side. I was sandwiched! I put my back up against the reef, and prepared to stay as long as I could hold my breath. Weirdly, or rather luckily, there was some interaction between the sharks. The one on the shore side swam out to meet the one in the open water and a sort of territorial posturing happened while the sharks semi-froze like two dogs sizing each other up. I was out of there, losing sight of the sharks as I broke the surface. Luckily the boat was not too far off and I managed to get on without seeing them again.
Charl Blignault
I grabbed René on his chest with my right hand and started hauling him out of the water and into the boat. But my senses told me that he was too light and was coming up out of the water too fast, which was when I thought he’d lost his legs. But as I continued pulling, the rest of his body followed and it took me only a moment to realise that all his limbs were intact. Certainly, there must have been some serious adrenalin pumping, because René is actually quite a big fellow, clocking in at about 90 kilograms, but there he was, in the boat, bloodied but alive. It was quite a miracle, I thought.
Francois Smuts
…..the speargun was suddenly almost ripped from my hands and I was jerked violently to one side. As I looked out of the water towards my float is was to see the entire rear half of a large great white completely out of the water, thrashing from side to side to swim down with, probably, my nice roman in its jaws.
Jerry Buirski
Join us for the official book launch of More Shark Stories – https://chat.whatsapp.com/HQOejmdkgGK4WiQ15roUjj
Discover more from Africa Unauthorised
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
