People safe, shark safe

False Bay in South Africa is an exceptional place, a melting pot where ocean currents collide, predators and prey dance, and a diverse array of people live together. The bay is also home to one of the largest aggregations of white sharks on the planet. In the surf and along the shoreline, the bay’s sharks and its people meet rarely, but when they do there can be drastic consequences. Just over ten years ago, Cape Town asked: how do we keep our people and our sharks safe? A homegrown venture, the first of its kind in the world, is not only keeping both people and sharks in the water, it’s contributing to understanding, awareness, socio-economic upliftment and biodiversity conservation. It’s a tall order, but not an impossible one.