A woman was killed in a shark attack on Sunday morning at a popular holiday destination, Plettenberg Bay, less than three months after a fatal attack there in June. Both the local Bitou municipality and the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) said this was “very unusual when compared with previous years”.

Just before 8am, the NSRI recovered the body of a woman, said to be 39, from the water near Central Beach. Plett News and Info reported that the victim was a tourist from Cape Town and her husband and child were on the scene.

After offering their condolences to the family, Craig Lambinon, the spokesperson for the NSRI, and Andile Namntu, the communications manager for the Bitou municipality, said that NSRI Plettenberg Bay and the SAPS were alerted at 7.53am and the sea rescue craft Eric Stratford was launched off Central Beach.

The Forensic Pathology Service and the SAPS have opened an inquest docket.

Shark barriers

The Bitou council approved research on shark barriers at Central Beach in May 2022, which the municipality and the NSRI said “will go a long way to assist in understanding the behaviour of the sharks. At this moment there seems to be more shark activity on our beaches.”

The municipality and the NSRI are appealing to people to be cautious along the Plettenberg Bay and Southern Cape coastline. The municipality has closed beaches in Plettenberg Bay.

The Bitou municipality has also established a shark committee to work with experienced private sector personnel to assist in limiting such incidents.

Daily Maverick previously reported that at the first Plett Marine Science Symposium in July this year, a talk on the predator-prey dynamic between white sharks and seals in Plettenberg Bay was the best-attended presentation, with ticket numbers doubling after a fatal great white shark attack earlier that week, on 28 June.

Patty Butterworth, the CEO of Plettenberg Bay Tourism, said at the time: “While Plettenberg Bay is renowned for its natural beauty, both on land and in the sea, we need to constantly remind ourselves that we are visitors in nature and need to exercise caution when out in the natural environment.”

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Lacey Williams, a marine scientist who completed her master’s dissertation on the interaction between white sharks and seals, said the June attack was “a tragedy, but it is also an opportunity for us to really learn about what’s happening in our backyard so we can both protect ourselves, our loved ones and the natural environment within which we interact, and upon which we depend”.

Williams emphasised that her study was not connected to that recent shark attack, or to human and shark interactions, but did say it was important to understand predation.

“Predation is one of the most fundamental forces that shape our natural world,” explained Williams during the talk. “It is an incredibly dynamic interaction — it directly impacts both predator and prey within a predation or predatory event.

“But it also indirectly impacts populations, structures, communities, and helps dictate entire ecosystem dynamics.

“Our survival is intricately linked to the planet — we can’t survive without it,” said Williams, adding that this was particularly important in a town like Plettenberg Bay which relied on tourism for its economic sustainability.

Plettenberg Bay Tourism told Daily Maverick that based on its latest data, collected from 2016 to 2018 (pre-Covid), the direct tourism economy generated R2.4-billion, with the summer months bringing in 75,000 visitors to Robberg, creating 3,000 to 4,000 jobs and generating R400,000,000 in wages.

Butterworth said: “The number of jobs created by tourism is significant, and the population is greatly affected by tourism. As one of the largest contributing industries, the revenue is invested in the town and residents experience an opportunity for economic growth.” DM/OBP

Update: Monday, 26 September 2022, at 5pm 

The victim has since been identified as 39-year-old Cape Town restaurateur Kimon Bisogno. Bisogno was co-owner of Ferdinando’s Pizza in Observatory with her partner Diego Milesi, and was well known for her community activism. Bisogno helped establish Obs Pasta Kitchen, an organisation that serves homemade pasta to homeless people each week. Following news of her attack, tributes for Bisogno have poured in on social media.

In a Facebook post on Sunday night, the non-profit activist organisation Ndifuna Ukwazi thanked Bisogno for her “inspiring work” in the community. 

“[Bisogno] ‘Kiki’ and her partner Diego began the Obs Pasta Kitchen out of their restaurant Ferdinando’s Pizza, serving homemade pasta once a week to people experiencing homelessness. This September, it celebrated five years in operation,” the organisation said.

It said Bisogno believed the aim of Obs Pasta Kitchen was to “develop relationships with the needy, and establish how we can help them, not just giving handouts, but creating special bonds so that ultimately there will be nobody at this Pasta Kitchen, it will just be a celebration of friends coming to ‘re-meet’.”

The organisation added that Bisogno and her partner also contributed food, gas and other essentials to Rainbow House, a long-term housing programme for people who used to live on the street in Observatory. 

In a post on Facebook, founder of Rainbow House Carlos Mesquita thanked Bisogno for her “shining example” and for exemplifying “the good fight for the homeless in Observatory”. 

“Kimon was the kindest, most giving and selfless person I have ever met,” said Mesquita. – Victoria O’Regan