Fatal Sharm shark attack leaves operators poised for action
Saturday, 06 Dec, 2010
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Tour operators to the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh are taking a wait-and-see approach to client advice after the weekend’s shark attack that left a German tourist dead.
The incident follows shark attacks in the middle of last week when three Russians and a Ukrianian tourist were badly mauled.
Egyptian authorities had placed a ban on entering the water at the hugely popular resort after the first attacks but then relaxed it after two sharks thought to be the culprits were caught.
Just days later the 70-year-old German woman washed up to shore at Naama Bay near the Hyatt Regency Sharm El Sheikh Hotel, a shark having torn off her right thigh and elbow.
This morning the Foreign Office updated its advice to warn of shark attacks in the region.
A Thomas Cook spokeswoman said that the operator would brief reps on the ground and staff back in the UK according to Foreign Office advice, which currently advises of the danger of sharks but does not suggest Brits don’t travel to the region.
UK diving specialist Regaldive said clients due to travel out to Sharm next week had begun calling this morning but that the operator was currently following the advice of the Chamber of Diving and Water Sports (CDWS), the governing body for diving in Egypt.
Regaldive’s director Andreas Elia said: “We are quite lucky in that we do not have any people in resort at the moment but we do have people due to travel there on December 11. We are not having to make any definitive decisions as yet but are closely monitoring the CDWS which are regularly issuing statements on the situation.”
“The calls from clients started this morning but until there is further advice we are not telling people to cancel or change locations. It’s a fluid decision making process at the moment.”
Meanwhile Longwood Holidays which currently has dive clients in Sharm was holding a management meeting first thing Monday morning to decide how to advise clients.
Diving specialist Tropical Sky’s director Chris Hawkins said clients would be given an alternative for certain holidays already booked in light of events. He said: “All winter sun holidays booked remain unaffected and bookings will be going ahead as planned. With any Tropical Sky scuba diving holidays booked, clients will be offered alternative dates to travel until the watersports ban has been lifted by the Egyptian authorities.”
All of Sharm’s beaches have been closed again for watersports activities except for nature reserve Ras Mohammed, south of the region.
Marine biologists have been flown into the area to study the phenomenon, which is confounding authorities. Egypt’s tourism minster Zuhair Garana told the AFP news agency: “We are getting marine biologists to assess the situation and why there was this change in biological nature. This is unnatural. It has never happened before. We have no explanation."
by Dinah Hatch
Dinah
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