Shark Attacks and Shark Attack Related Incidents News Articles on Shark Bites

Witnesses tell of shark attack 15/11/2004 12:35 - (SA)

Cape Town - A witness to a presumed great white shark attack along the False Bay coastline on Monday morning described how the shark circled its prey and tore into an elderly woman bather.

"All that was left was a little red bathing cap," said False Bay Yacht Club rear commodore Paul Dennett, who witnessed the attack from his home, about 100m from where the bloodied water was dissipating.

Dennett said that at about 07:00 he saw a lot of thrashing in the water, about 20m off the shoreline at Fish Hoek beach.

He went outside and saw the shark attacking something, which he initially suspected was a seal.

"Then I saw somebody in the water; there was a helluva lot of blood."

Had never seen such a big shark

Dennett immediately called rescue services to raise the alarm.

"I then saw the shark circle around the victim... and then in just one big mouth, and not even breaching the water, took her in," said Dennett.

Dennett said in all his life he had never seen a shark as big, estimating it to be at least six metres long.

His fiancée and her daughter, who also witnessed the attack, were traumatised and receiving counselling.

Dennett said during the attack they screamed to other bathers enjoying their ritual early morning swim to get out of the water.

On average there are about 30 to 40 swimmers in the water early morning.

Mother's friend

Laurence Lemmon-Warde told News24 the victim was a friend of his mother.

A group of women met at the beach each morning for a swim.

On Monday morning, his mother left a message on his cellphone telling him not to worry, she was okay, but that her friend had been attacked by a shark.

Huge shark spotted in the bay

Meanwhile, a Metro emergency helicopter despatched to the scene of the shark attack in Fish Hoek beach near Cape Town returned to base without locating the septuagenarian, aged either 76 or 77.

National Sea Rescue Institute and other emergency service personnel were still at the scene.

NSRI spokesperson Craig Lambinon said a full-scale search was under way for the woman.

Lambinon said a shark had been spotted in the vicinity of Clovelly, near Fish Hoek.

"The shark is bigger than the helicopter... it is huge," he said.

Lambinon said the woman had been identified, but her name would not be released until her next of kin was informed. - News24/Sapa

Shark attack rivets world 17/11/2004 08:41 - (SA)

Cape Town - The shark attack that took place at Fish Hoek on Monday has made headline news around the world.

Reports of 78-year-old Tyna Webb's death hit websites - from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, ABC News Online, through to Scotland's national newspaper, The Scotsman, soon after the attack.

The Washington Times, The Times and the Globe and Mail also reported the attack, as did CNN.

Craig Lambinon of the National Sea Rescue Institute was quoted in all the reports.

He said the Great White shark was bigger than the rescue helicopter used in the search for Webb's body. Only her red swimming cap was recovered.

According to Times Online, Amanzimtoti near Durban is one of the most dangerous beaches in the world - with 11 recorded shark attacks since 1940.

Three of the victims died.

Other beaches on the "shark" list include New Smyrna beach in Florida, where six attacks took place in one weekend, Suape harbour in Brazil, which has seen the death of 14 people in shark attacks since 1990 and Australia, with 132 deadly attacks in 200 years.

Hundreds mourn shark victim
19/11/2004 22:05 - (SA)

Cape Town - Several hundred people attended a "service of thanksgiving" for shark victim Tyna Webb in Cape Town's St George's Cathedral on Friday afternoon.

Webb, 78, was killed by a Great White while taking her regular swim off Fish Hoek beach on Monday. Her body has not been recovered.

Among those at the service - which a family member said was deliberately not referred to as a memorial service to honour her wish that she did not want a funeral - were her five children and five grandchildren.

In a tribute, close friend Lizzie Hewitt referred to what she said was Webb's "strangely mythical death".

"In some quarters, there's been a demonising of the shark and the saint-making of Tyna," she said. "That is the order of fiction.

"Tyna was a real human being, a special one. She loved us all because she took seriously God's commandment: love God, love thy neighbour," said Hewitt.

"God bless Tyna for your God-given lovingness to us all."

'Completion of a circle'

Another long-standing friend, Hannes Horn, read a poem he had written for Webb - which, translated from the Afrikaans original, ran in part:

"Ebb and flow/Come and go/Sea of blue/Silver moon... Friend in the breaking waves/Framed by the blue green of the ocean."

"We feel the way she went is the completion of a circle," Horn said afterwards.

"That the sea took her is the spiritual completion of her whole life. You know, she swam in that sea for 17 years."

Among bibical texts read during the service was a passage from Isiah: "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you."

11/15/2004 Tyna Webb 77 Fatal
Fish Hoek, False Bay Western Cape Province
South Africa
Swimming 7:00:00 AM 6 m White shark

Onlookers tried to warn shark attack victim

November 16 2004 at 12:32PM

By Terri-Liza Fortein

Tyna Webb, 77, loved nothing more than to slice through the blue sea off Jager's Walk in Fish Hoek, but on Monday her daily jaunt turned to horror when a large shark, believed to be a Great White, took her in its jaws.

On Monday at about 7am André Mentor, 48, was on the mountainside acting as a spotter for the local fishing crew when he saw the shark attack Webb.

"Every morning this woman swims the backstroke, but this morning as she was swimming the shark came to inspect and although we screamed and waved the flag trying to warn her, the shark got hold of her," Mentor said.




Other witnesses on the hill saw the shark speed towards Webb and attack her, then the sea around her fill with blood.

They said the shark had then headed out to sea and she might still have been in its jaws.

Webb's son-in-law Thomas Spies, a local doctor, was at the scene just after 8am.

Spies, who was the first family member on the scene, did not want to discuss his emotions on Monday.

By Monday afternoon, several hours after the attack, Webb's body had still not been recovered and the family prepared themselves for the worst.

While Webb's daughters Isabelle Spies and Ninky Matthee drank tea in the kitchen of the Spieses' Noordhoek home and friends dropped by to offer their condolences, police divers and National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) helicopters continued to comb the area where Webb was attacked.

But there was no sign of her.

NSRI spokesperson Craig Lambinon said: "Tyna Webb is presumed dead at this stage and I think her family has come to terms with that."

On Monday Matthee and her husband Frank, who rushed to Noordhoek from Hermanus after they received news of the incident, said the family was very shocked and traumatised by what had happened.

Matthee said she had two brothers in America who would attend the memorial service. Several other family members were scattered all over the world.

"My mother was an amazing swimmer and she loved nature and being outdoors but the sea was her favourite.

"She lived on her own and was always a very independent person with a very good spirit," Matthee said.

Webb, whose given name was Cecilia Mathilda, was nicknamed Tyna because she was the youngest and "tiniest" of nine children.

She was born in Bloemfontein and obtained a BA, majoring in English and Latin, from the University of the Free State.

She taught in Pretoria and Johannesburg but moved to Cape Town in 1987.

She lived in St James before moving to Fish Hoek in 1989.

Webb's husband Jon Webb died about 11 years ago and she has been living alone ever since.

Frank Matthee described Webb as a very spiritual person who devoted a lot of her time to charity work.

She was also a member of the Fish Hoek Methodist Church and her parish priest, Reverend Ronnie Cawood, said she had been a loved and respected member of the church. She was involved in the church's book club and was also a St Luke's Hospice caregiver. She also contributed to the building of the Methodist Church in Masiphumelele.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1 ... 204C965069

Shark: 'Worst is not knowing'
16/11/2004 13:47 - (SA)

A police diver leaves the water after searching for the body of shark attack victim Tyna Webb. (Esa Alexander, Die Burger)


Cape Town - The worst thing for Tyna Webb's family must be that her body has not been found, says the mother of shark-attack survivor JP Andrew.

Tyna Webb, 78, was attacked by a giant shark at Fish Hoek beach on Monday. Her body is still missing.

JP, 17, lost his right leg while surfing at nearby Muizenberg beach on April 5.

He lost a lot of blood, and doctors believed he wouldn't survive. In fact, JP was declared dead at the beach.

"But even if he had died, I would still have had his body," Estelle Andrew told News24 on Tuesday. "The worst thing must be not to know where the body is."

Estelle explained: "JP's accident was a nightmare. But at least he's alive. And once I had accepted what had happened to my son, I could deal with it.

"Tyna Webb's family know that she is not alive, but it must be very painful for them not to have the body," she said, but warned: "Seeing the body might have been more traumatic."

Severed leg

JP's severed leg washed up four days after the Great White shark attacked him.

"I refused to look at the leg. My daughter Natasha took photographs, but I couldn't bring myself to look at them," she said.

Estelle was traumatised about her son having lost his leg, and almost his life, in the attack. "It's all a blur," she admitted.


Relating the incident, Estelle said she was at her employer's house on that near-fatal Monday morning when a call came through.

"I became hysterical. Just that morning someone had asked me if I wasn't afraid of JP being attacked by a shark," she said.

"Police came to the house and told me it was bad, that he had lost his leg. I never asked whether he was dead, and it never even occurred to me that he might have been killed."


In the weeks that followed, doctors fought to save JP's life.

"He had received 21 litres of blood, and the blood just wouldn't clot," explained Andrew.

Didn't bargain with God

On Easter Sunday, six days after the attack, Estelle went into the chapel at the hospital and "just sat there", trying to regain her composure.

"I didn't bargain with God, telling him I'd do this or that if only my son would live. When I went back into the ward, I was told he would live."

Since his miraculous recovery, JP has had to learn to write again. He was blinded by the lack of oxygen to his brain because of the blood loss.

Only on Freedom Day, April 27, did his sight start to return to normal.

"He still has memory lapses and can't remember at all what had happened during the attack. He knows what his friends told him about it," says Estelle.

"He had youth and fitness on his side, which helped him to recover quickly, even though it felt like a very long time."

JP attended school on Monday, something he done rarely since the attack, and upon returning home he said he was "very tired".

He just said, "Gee, two shark attacks in seven months."