2023-06-09 10:55:39
The sheikh of fishermen in the Egyptian city of Hurghada, Gharib Saleh, revealed to Sky News Arabia the details of the shark hunt that killed a Russian tourist on Thursday, explaining that 17 fishermen of different ages participated in it.
Gharib Saleh, who was the head of the Fishermen’s Association in Hurghada until last year, explained that he had received calls from the executive authorities in the Red Sea Governorate to gather fishermen to carry out the operation of catching the shark that attacked the Russian youth.
Saleh, 73, said:
- In the beginning, I told those who contacted me to collect fishermen that hunting sharks is prohibited, and they confirmed that the decision came after reviewing the experts of the Ministry of Environment and that this is an exceptional case that necessitates catching the fish because it has a defect that makes it come out to the beach and remain there and attack humans.
- 16 fishermen of different ages participated with me, and we brought 3 nets and bait, which consisted of chopped fish, which we scattered in the area where the shark was to lure it to it and control it.
- We saw the shark swimming near the beach, but it refused to eat the fish we used as bait, and it also threw the rest of the body of the Russian tourist before our eyes near the beach.
- We made three net traps for her and chased him through two wooden boats until we could force him into one of the nets and hold his mouth with a chain.
- The process of catching the shark did not take more than an hour, as all the fishermen participating in it have great experience in dealing with such situations.
- We are not afraid of sharks, and we often swim next to them in the sea. Under normal conditions, they do not attack humans, but it is clear that there is something wrong with that fish.
- We learned that we will be honored by the governorate authorities next Sunday for catching this fish, which posed a threat to people’s lives.
A rare accident
For his part, the head of the River Rescue and Environmental Protection Association in the Red Sea, Hassan Al-Tayeb, told Sky News Arabia that the incident of a shark attack on a Russian tourist should not cause panic, as it is a rare and accidental incident, as he described it.
He added that “incidents of shark attacks on humans are almost daily in countries such as South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and America, while in Egypt this rarely happens, and if it was repeated in the past years, this prompted the concerned agencies to move in order to study the causes.”
Earlier, the head of the nature protection sector at the Egyptian Ministry of Environment, Mohamed Salem, told Sky News Arabia that the fish was caught for dissection and an explanation of the reason that led to the imbalance that made it consider humans as one of its sources of nutrition, unlike nature.
He explained that the “Tiger” shark is one of the known and usual species found in the Red Sea and is not alien to it, but its offensive behavior on humans is the strange thing.
He noted that the preliminary investigation indicated that this fish was most likely behind two previous attacks on the coasts of Hurghada and Marsa Alam, last year and the previous year.
The horrific incident of a shark when it attacked a Russian youth on one of the beaches of Hurghada raised many questions about its type and the secret of its attack on humans.
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