This Thursday, October 10, a 2.60 m tiger shark was taken offshore in the bay of Saint-Paul, in the west of the island of Reunion. Three days earlier, a 2.80 m shark was captured, a few kilometers away, in the same area. “There have been numerous captures in recent weeks and an increase in sightings,” underlines Michaël Hoarau, operations director of the shark safety center. Particularly from Saint-Paul to Saint-Leu, in the west of the island. In August, nine tiger sharks were captured, compared to 3 in June and only 2 in April.
These samples are part of the Reunion Island prevention fishing program (PR2P) which is part of the fight against shark risk. A system put in place during the “shark crisis”, from 2011 to 2019, where 25 attacks were recorded, causing eleven deaths in Reunion waters. Among the victims, Laurent Chardard, double bronze medalist in the swimming events at the Paris Paralympic Games, lost his arm, then his leg, during a second charge, while he was bodyboarding, in 2016.
