It might not have rivaled the “get out of the water” scene of “Jaws,” but swimmers at Fish Hoek Beach in Cape Town, South Africa, headed for the beach in a hurry, some faster than others, when the shark siren blared. And they appeared to reach shore just in time.
Aly Ison captured video of the moment after Shark Spotters sounded the alarm and moments later also recorded footage of the actual shark close to shore.
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“When the shark alarm goes off and you actually see the shark,” Ison wrote on Facebook. “The Shark Spotters do an amazing job spotting the sharks in the bay. This one appears to be a bronze whaler.”
The Shark Spotters confirmed it was, indeed, a bronze whaler, a.k.a. a copper shark, according to The South African.
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Fish Hoek Beach is about a mile long and is protected from currents and strong surf as it sits within False Bay. Shark Spotters are often on duty and when they sound the alarm, the locals know the drill, especially considering there were fatal shark attacks in this bay in 2004 and 2011.
Usually when a shark is spotted, officials can deploy exclusion barriers to protect the swimmers in the bay, but “due to fishing activity in Fish Hoek corner” they couldn’t be activated, The South African reported.
Photo courtesy of Aly Ison.