Shark Death Fury

A shark chart that adorns the wall of a local bistro in St Leu. Photo Spike

According to reports, Elio Canestri, 13, was surfing north of St Leu off Les Aigrettes Beach, Boucan Canot (there is a ban on all water activities on Reunion, put in place in February after another fatality on the Indian Ocean island) on Sunday morning in a training session for elite youngsters with potential to be French champion when he was attacked. He died soon after.

In an article on www.zinfos974.com, journalist Pierrot Dupuy slammed authorities on the French island for delays, incompetence and gross negligence in not implementing means at their disposal to prevent attacks :

"Do not forget successive prefects who preferred to count their pennies and listen to ecologist morons who swarm the halls of the organisations funded by the state to handle these problems, rather than implement solutions advocated long ago."

He continued: "There are means to solve this problem. They exist all over the world, be it nets, repellents, surveillance drones, lookouts in paddle or submarines snorkellers.

"Our elected officials are responsible for delays, particularly those of the former municipality of Saint-Paul in the term of office of Huguette Bello who preferred to look away because it only affected a few in their children, rather than tackling the problem head-on to implement sustainable solutions.

In another post headed Je suis Elio made this morning, Puduy gathered a vitriolic head of steam: I am Elio. I am also 13yrs old and have got up to many pranks thinking that nothing would ever happen to me. Well, f*** all those bastards who blame his poor parents (who must be completely gutted by this drama). I suppose you have never pulled a prank in your lives? Do you think that someone merits the death sentence everytime someone does something illegal? Meanwhile the prefect hides behind the fact that surfing is banned. It reminds me of the game of escaping the blame. Very in vogue in the French administration. When there is a problem just ban it. That way they don't have to deal with it, and they are legally exonerated from responsibility in case of attack. Much easier than finding solutions. My take? "MURDERING BUNCH OF M***** F***ERS."

"We are able to spend a billion and a half to build a coastal road, including concentrating on stopping rubble from killing motorists. When was the last death in rubble on the coastal road? Meanwhile, there are several deaths per year due to shark attacks and our politicians sit back and do nothing."

Dupuy pulled no punches.

"If they are insensitive to the death of some kids, perhaps they could take into account the economic death of our island? How many traders have closed due to shark attack? How many hundreds of millions have been spent in our island by tourists frightened at the idea of being eaten while on vacation? And how many jobs have been lost?"

A former Capetonian who lives on Reunion, Davey Stolk, knows all about that, having seen the steady decline of surf shop and tourism revenue in his home town of St Leu.

On his Facebook wall, in reference to the above article which he posted, he said: "This is telling it like it is. F***ing bunch of abrutis (assholes) that govern us.

The fabled left of St Leu lies mostly fallow, unless you break the law. Photo Spike

Local authorities have deployed boats, including fishing craft, to locate and kill the shark. In February, a ban on all water activities was imposed along coast not monitored by lifeguards after a shark attack on a woman swimmer.

A report on Stab Magazine says there had been measures to get surfers back in water through "protected surf training sessions for the elite surfers on the island, wherein surfers in the session are protected by divers with spear guns. But it appears that there were no divers present for this training session."

The tragedy will no doubt add more urgency to evolve anti-shark deterrent technology, of which several exist (but have their detractors) such as the SharkShield, the SurfSafe device invented recently by Dave Smith of Katana Surfboards (news story) or even the SAMS (Shark Attack Mitigation Systems) that use wetsuit colours and patterns as the deterrent.

French surfer Jeremy Flores, who grew up on Reunion Island, said this on Instragram:

“ANOTHER shark attack in Réunion island this morning. 13 years old Elio was one of our best up and coming surfer. Words can’t describe how sad and angry i am. So young !!! Heart breaking News. RIP.”

The successful Shark Spotting programme at Muizenberg, Cape Town.Photo Shark Spotters