American researcher attacked by shark

A 22-year-old American scientist was savaged by a shark while scuba-diving off Rocky Bay, near Pennington, on the KwaZuluNatal South Coast.

Netcare 911 paramedic Chris Botha said the man was diving for "scientific research" purposes when he was attacked just after noon.

"Both his hands and his left leg were badly mauled. Paramedics had to stabilise him before he was airlifted to the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital."

Botha and police refused to identify the man.

Head of research at the Natal Sharks Board Jeremy Cliff said the man was diving 5km offshore when he was attacked.

"This is an isolated incident and should be treated as such. The general public should not be worried about being attacked.

"But I must say that they need to be very careful when swimming because there's a lot of shark movement with the sardine activities that [are] currently taking place. They need to exercise extra caution," he said.

Less than a month ago, a spear-fisherman died at Cape Vidal, on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast, after he was bitten by a shark that was apparently after his fresh catch.

Warren Smart, 28, of Richards Bay - a founding member of the Zululand Spearfishing Club - died from a massive loss of blood.

While paramedics and the National Sea Rescue Institute crew were attending to him, Smart told friends who had accompanied him on the spear-fishing dive that the shark had intended to grab the fish he had just caught but had accidentally bitten his thigh.

Minutes later, Smart died.