Thirty-two years ago Mike, then a marine biology student at the University of Natal Durban, heard about a post advertised at the KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board. He wanted the job, applied . . . and he’s never worked anywhere else since.
“Boy was my dad mad,” he says, “but I knew what I wanted and I wanted to work in the field.”
Over the years Mike has risen through the ranks – from meshing officer (the staff who go out on boats, release animals trapped in the nets, clean and maintain, and remove and replace nets); he’s worked at Ballito and Umhlanga; in 1980 he qualified as a diver and is now a dive instructor; since 2000 he has been the Sharks Board’s pilot. And in case you didn’t know, the man famous for his Sardine Run reports is also the Sharks Board’s head of operations.
Mike is local all the way: he was born and grew up in Virginia, attended Northlands boys, studied in Durban and has spent his entire working career at the Sharks Board, whose head offices are in Umhlanga Rocks Drive.
“I really feel a part of the North Durban community. My job is a passion, it has to be when you are on standby 24 hours of every day. It can be stressful on the home life . . . if I’ve made plans for the weekend with my wife and two boys, I can get that call and off I go. The family is really supportive, which helps a lot.”
Responsibilities include handling 75 meshing staff, 22 boats (15 of which go out to sea on a regular basis), overseeing any filming, rescues, whale entanglement, flying the Partenavia P.68 twin engine plane which is always on standby at Virginia Airport, and cleaning and repair of nets.
Mike says flying is one of his passions and he was thrilled when they were able to replace the single engine Cessna with the Italian-made Partenavia.
“The reason I’m still here after 32 years is I really believe in the values of this place. There are strong ethics and people work hard because they believe in what we’re doing. It’s never mundane . . . I work 365 days a year and it never stops, every day brings a new challenge.”
Some highlights of his career are that in the past 10 years his staff have released 42 whales from Sharks Board nets, without losing one whale. “Also, I’ve never flipped a boat in all my time at the Sharks Board, despite going out in some pretty gnarly conditions. I’m also proud of my crews who go out and do dangerous work, and do it for the love of the job. They’re really dedicated and I’ve seen the boys patiently swimming exhausted sharks up and down for ages to try to get them going again.” On the development side, seven out of 15 boat captains are now black, which is a huge turnaround from the past.
Record ragged-tooth shark recapture
“In this job we’re always striving to get to a position where we can protect our human population while not harming marine life . . . it’s a long shot, but perhaps we’ll get there in my lifetime,” says Mike. Interestingly, whale population numbers have now returned to pre-whaling days, and Mike said incidents where whales washed up on beaches or beached themselves would become more common. “There’re now about 8 500 humpback whales off our coastline, and the figure is growing each year by 7-9%.”
The Sharks Board Head of Operations has lectured in Hong Kong, Reunion, Mauritius and Australia, and travelled most of the world. He spent the better part of two years in Hong Kong helping the Chinese set up netting systems on six beaches around Hong Kong island. “I had been seconded by the Sharks Board which won a contract to assist in Hong Kong and was on 48-hour call. One day I stepped off a plane in Durban at 9am, and then had to board a plane for Hong Kong that night. It was some experience.”
Out of work, Mike likes to go fishing with his boys, spends time riding bikes and, with his family, enjoys spending time in the mountains. – By Garth Johnstone
About the KZN Sharks Board
The KZN Sharks Board is the sole provider of protection from shark attacks at 38 localities along 320km of coastline in Kwazulu-Natal. The nets, with a stretched mesh of 51cm, are placed in two parallel lines about 400m offshore and are held together by large anchors. This holds true for most of the major beaches in KZN, which usually have at least one net in place with four drumlines.
Sharks caught in the nets are usually analysed and there are three reasons for this: to understand more about their biology, to gauge the impact of shark net-induced deaths on the stocks, and to reduce these mortalities while still keeping beachgoers thoroughly protected.
Live sharks that are caught are assessed and tested via various means, while dead sharks that have yet to decompose are examined for biological purposes. The nets have shown their effectiveness through the statistics, which now show that there is less than one attack each year along our coastline. There have also been only two fatal attacks in the past 17 years at protected beaches, as opposed to 15 in unprotected areas.
While nets may be the choice of protection for regular beach-goers, Scuba divers were in need of something more effective, that would be able to repel sharks from close distances. It was for this reason that the SharkPOD (Protective Oceanic Device) was experimented with between 1996 and 2001. The SharkPOD is an electrical shark repellent that showed much promise in deterring sharks that came within 1m of the device. It was developed and sold in these five years, but the Sharks Board has now handed over the SharkPOD project to POD Holdings Ltd, in which the Sharks Board is a shareholder. It’s hoped that they will be made more effective and reliable in future.
The KZNSB welcomes and encourages visits by members of the public to its complex in Umhlanga Rocks where they can view a 25 minute audio-visual presentation on the day-to-day work done by the Sharks Board, as well as on the important role sharks and other animals play in the marine ecosystem. This is followed by a 20 minute dissection. Or visit the display hall and view the large variety of lifelike replicas of sharks, fish and rays, including that of a 892kg Great White shark. – Grayson Hale
Contact the Sharks Board: 031 566 0400
Physical Address:• 1a Herrwood Drive Umhlanga