Experts recommend nets after Seychelles shark attacks

Authorities in the Seychelles will erect special anti-shark sea nets around a popular beach where two tourists were killed in separate attacks last month, officials said.

South African experts from the KwaZulu Natal Sharks Board – hired by the Seychellois government to investigate the attacks – said their recommendations to introduce nets had been accepted.

A swimming ban imposed after the attacks will continue “until such time as small-mesh exclusion nets were introduced at the attack site and adjacent beaches”, Geremy Cliff, head of research at the centre, said.

“It was evident the minister wants to ensure that every reasonable precaution is taken to prevent further shark attacks,” Mr Cliff added, who normally works to protect swimmers in South Africa from attacks.

British honeymooner Ian Redmond was killed last month while in the sea off Anse Lazio beach – a famous beauty spot on the archipelago’s Praslin island – while his newly-wed wife watched on helplessly.

The attack happened in the same area where a shark attacked and killed 36-year-old French tourist Nicolas Francois Xavier Virolle earlier ilast month.

“From close examination of photographs of the injuries, it appeared that large tiger sharks in the region of four metres were responsible for both attacks,” Mr Cliff also said in a report.

“It is impossible to confirm that the same shark was responsible, but it cannot be excluded.”

A shark tooth fragment found in a victim will be analysed in the hope of confirming the exact species, he added.

The Seychellois home affairs ministry said in a statement last week it would work with the South African experts to “address the local shark problem”.

Fishermen on the Indian Ocean archipelago caught some 40 sharks since the attack on government orders, although Cliff said most were from species “none of which pose a major threat” to humans.