Bathing has been banned in the resort town of Scottburgh on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast after the shark nets were removed on Wednesday morning.

They were temporarily taken away after 14 tiger sharks were found caught in the nets, said Mike Anderson-Reade, head of operations at the KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board.

"A total of 14 shark, ranging from 1.7m to 2.3m in length were captured."

Nine of the sharks were tagged and released alive. It was not clear what happened to the others. A crew from the board helped remove the nets.

"The removal of gear in this type of unusual situation is standard practice to prevent the unnecessary capture of any sharks," Anderson-Reade said.

"Tiger sharks are notorious scavengers, but no captures have occurred at this installation since 3 April 2012, when two spinner sharks were caught."

He said there appeared to be some form of "slick" on the water surface. The source of it was unknown.

"This may be acting as an attractant to these sharks".

The bathing ban was a precautionary measure which would remain in place until the slick had disappeared.

Sapa

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