CAIRO: In a strange turn of events, the Egyptian tourism minister announced less than 24 hours after a German woman was killed by a shark off the Sharm el-Sheikh coast that shallow waters are 100 percent safe. Minister Zuhair Garrana said that diving was being allowed as “we are advised that sharks will not attack divers.” He added that “I cannot say that deep waters are completely secure but shallow waters are 100 percent secure.” It was a seemingly desperate plea by the ministry to get travelers back in the water and save what could be massive losses from the holiday season along Egypt's Red Sea coast. A German woman died on Sunday after being attacked by an oceanic whitetip shark off Egypt's Red Sea coast, Egyptian government officials said. The woman is the first death in a JAWS-like string of shark attacks along the resort coastline in the past week. Beaches along the resort area were closed Monday, but in accordance with the ministry's statements that it is safe to go in the water, they have been re-opened. Last week, the government had closed the beaches for 48 hours after two other attacks occurred. They said it was safe after they caught and killed two sharks, including an endangered oceanic whitetip. Jochen Van Lysebettens, general operations manager of the Red Sea Diving College in Sharm el-Sheikh,was reported to have said employees told him the attack happened around noon Egypt time in a protected area off the resort. The 70-year-old woman, a regular guest at the resort,had been snorkeling near a reef when she was attacked. She was reported to have called for help, and a lifeguard brought her to shore, but she had lost too much blood and resuscitation efforts failed. The woman's arm and leg were severed. Egyptian officials killed an endangered whitetip shark on Thursday after two attacks on Russian tourists in successive days earlier in the week. The shark was captured and examined for its stomach contents, officials said. Another shark, a mako – officials believe this was the attacking shark – was also captured. The oceanic whitetip species, which are commonplace in the Red Sea's deep waters, is not known to attack humans. The whitetip is also listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as a threatened species. The ministry has shut down all scuba diving along the Red Sea, including popular tourist resorts of Sharm el-Sheikh and Gouna, in light of the recent attacks. Beaches as well have been closed since Wednesday and the tourism ministry has yet to announce when they would be reopened. The two Russians had been swimming in the Ras Nasrani area when the shark attacked and bit their arms off. Officials in the area believe the same shark was responsible for a separate attack the day before that injured another Russian couple while they were swimming near the beach. All four individuals have been airlifted to Cairo where they are receiving medical attention and are currently in critical condition. International shark advocate Thomas Hopkins, who has helped develop means of redirecting sharks from Australian beaches without violence, told Bikya Masr on Wednesday that the attack is likely a result of the declining ecosystem of the Red Sea. “We have seen in the past few years massive troubles with more sharks coming closer to the shores in Egypt,” he began. “What is happening is that a lot of the marine life and fish sharks used to eat have migrated away from areas and sharks are resorting to the next best catch around and that is human flesh,” he said, adding that killing the shark will do little to stem any future attacks. “Egypt needs to reassess its environmental policy in the Red Sea in order to buttress areas where marine life is dwindling in order to keep the big animals away from the shore,” he added. Egypt has on average one to two fatal shark attacks annually. BM
