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Sharm shark attacks have been "sensationalised" say local property firms
A spate of shark attacks off the coast of Sharm El-Sheikh this week are “in danger of being over-sensationalised” by the press says Jeff Dickinson, managing director of the area’s biggest real estate company Pioneer Property Investments and Real Estate.
“Yes, some people have been attacked and one woman I’m very sorry to say has been killed” Dickinson told OPP, “but this is a very rare occurrence.
“There will be a short-term effect” he says, “but it won’t make any real difference to our tourism numbers in the long term. It will be a danger, danger sensational story for a week or two, and then it will blow over.”
Tarek Ed Saadi, president of Shark El Sheikh Real Estate, agrees. "There will be no long-term investment impact" he says. "People are coming here to buy for life, and these sort of events will not put them off. It is like the tsunami ... a terrible happening. But such things happen, and we all move on."
Tarek El Saadi cannot see any decrease in the number of flights coming into Sharm's main airport - quite the opposite. He sold at least 4 units in the days immediately after the attacks he says, and business is good. His only worry is that the authorities have re-opened the beaches too quickly. "I would have preferred to wait until they had hunted down the individual shark responsible."
Sharm El-Sheik is located on the tip of the Sinai peninsula at the northern end of Egypt’s Red Sea coast and is a popular diving location. More than 4 million tourists visit the area each year.
Part of the problem is that an Australian ship dumped cattle carcasses into the sea locally last week, and this has attracted the sharks say scientists.
The UK Foreign Office has warned holidaymakers in Sharm el-Sheikh to be “on their guard.”
The fatality happened when a German had her arm torn off by a shark on Saturday - just days after local tourism officials declared the beach safe for swimming.
Three Russians and a Ukrainian tourist were also badly mauled in earlier attacks by an oceanic white tip shark.
Beaches at Sharm el-Sheikh had only just been reopened following the earlier attacks when the latest victim, a 70-year-old German woman, went snorkelling on a reef close to the shore. Authorities in the resort had reassured tourists that they had captured two sharks – an oceanic white tip and a mako – and the Red Sea waters were once again safe for swimming.
Jeff Dickinson is convinced that these are not the correct animals.
Witnesses told how the woman screamed for help after an oceanic white tip shark tore off her arm and part of her thigh. She is said to have died within minutes.
Tourist Ellen Barnes told local reporters that she swam back to the beach as “the water was churning like I was in a washing machine. The shark was thrashing and tearing at this poor woman and I could barely keep my head above the water it was so choppy.”
The attacks are being blamed on a rogue oceanic white tip shark. These can grow to 13 feet in length and are rarely found close to the shore.
Environmentalists think that the attacks may have been caused by over-fishing in the region, which has brought sharks closer to shore to feed.
However, diving experts believe that the sharks could have been drawn to the coastline when a number of dead cattle – which were being brought in for the Islamic feast of sacrifice, Eid al-Adha – were dumped overboard in the water.
“It is unusual to have four attacks in a week,” says Rolf Schmid, manager of the Sinai Divers’ Centre. “The area hasn’t had sharks for the past ten to 15 years. A possible reason for these attacks is that when cattle and sheep imported from Australia die on the long voyage, they are thrown in the water before the ships reach harbour.”
