Sharks Keep Eating Surfers in Réunion

(Photos courtesy of Frederic Buyle)

The tiny French island of Réunion lies about 120 miles off Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. You might know it for its black sand beach, its beautiful waterfalls or – if you're one for guffawing at hilarious foreign place names – as the island that boasts an area named Le Tampon. You also might know it as the location of a huge number of deaths from shark attacks – in relative terms – in a very short space of time.

Last week, a teenage French girl was snorkelling off the island's coast when a shark tore her in two. She was 15-feet from shore. Two months prior to that, a French honeymooner was fatally bitten as he waited in heavy swell for a wave. In August 2012, another surfer, Fabien Bujon, went tooth to fist with a bull shark in the wells of St Lieu and had to paddle over a hundred yards back to shore without a foot.

In fact, sharks have killed five people in the waters off Réunion in two years. It's a number that has had surfers and fishermen protesting in the streets for a state-sponsored cull, though so far the regional and national French authorities have resisted.

To get a better gauge of the situation I spoke to Frederic Buyle, a legendary Belgian free-diver and photographer who has been contracted by the regional authority to survey Réunion's shark-riddled coast.

Frederic Buyle.

VICE: Hi Frederic. How dangerous are the waters off Réunion?
Frederic Buyle: What I can tell you from my experience in Réunion – and this is also the experience of lots of local divers – is that you don't encounter a lot of sharks. I'd even say that it's one of the tropical locations where I've seen the smallest number of sharks while diving and looking for them. And when you see them, they are very shy.

That seems strange, seeing as the most recent attack occurred in shallow waters.
Sharks like bull sharks have a territory and they cruise and patrol it all day long. Shore and coastal waters are part of their territory, so there's nothing strange in the fact that they're seen in very shallow waters.

What’s bringing them so close and in such numbers? Is it the old theory that they're mistaking humans for turtles? 
The turtle theory is bullshit. The story is that sharks are curious, and when they see something that could be a potential meal they investigate it. To investigate, the shark will swim closer and closer and see the reaction of that potential prey and assess whether it's "safe" to go for it. Like any other apex predator – like a lion or a tiger – they have to make sure they don't risk getting hurt when they hunt. If you're a surfer or a swimmer, you don't see that investigation phase, so you're not able to react properly to it. The proper reaction is to face the animal and not behave like prey. That's why every year hundreds of thousands of people dive safely with sharks, including bull sharks, tiger sharks and great white sharks.

Okay.
I don't see the sharks targeting surfers in particular – they're just opportunistic feeders. In my opinion, it's possible to dive with sharks without being in danger; I’ve got some good imagery to illustrate that.

The surfers want to kill the sharks and the government is closing beaches. How useful are these solutions?
Closing beaches is the easy solution, but it won't work and neither will a cull. If you kill sharks, you'll never solve the problem, because nature doesn't like a void. If you get rid of them, others will replace them and then you'll give people a false sense of security.

So if neither works, do they just carry on surfing and swimming and accept the risk?
In my opinion, people should be more educated about the dangers of being at sea. People are doing more and more outdoor activities but don't realise that the oceans or the mountains are places where you have to respect certain rules and where you can't have everything under control like you do in your living room. In South Africa, the States or Australia – where you have places where sharks are common – you find signals warning you that you're "swimming at your own risk" and people understand. They go if they think they can handle the situation, or they just don't go, period.

I read somewhere that bull sharks are attracted to sewage – is there an environmental solution here?
Réunion is a very populated area and most of the population lives near the coast due to the island's topography. And, of course, the sewage system is far from up to date and people are dumping a lot of stuff in rivers that ends up in the sea. That's a problem to be solved, but of course it's far easier to go out to sea and kill sharks instead of solving real issues and educating people.

Thanks, Frederic.

Follow James on Twitter: @bainosorus

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