A Durban selected video:
Keynote Address
KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board and Biomedical Resource Unit, University of KwaZulu-Natal
Early interest in the South African elasmobranch fauna was confined to species descriptions and distributional records by several European-based taxonomists and John Gilchrist and Cecil von Bonde (Dept. of Agriculture and Fisheries), Andrew Smith and Keppel Barnard (South African Museum) and later JLB Smith of Rhodes University, and their colleagues. A spate of shark attacks on the KwaZulu-Natal coast in the 1940s and 1950s prove the impetus for a major thrust in shark research and shark control measures. It resulted in the deployment of the first shark nets in Durban in 1952. In 1959 research into the development of electrical shark repellents was initiated by the CSIR and still continues today at the KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board. The Oceanographic Research Institute was established in Durban in 1959 with sharks and shark attack a major focus under director David Davies, resulting in a series of seminal reports on the sharks of the region (John Bass and colleagues). The expansion of shark netting along the KZN coast provided considerable material for their research. It also resulted in a suite of publications by the Natal Sharks Board on the catch statistics and life history of the sharks caught in this program (Geremy Cliff, Sheldon Dudley and colleagues). The arrival of shark taxonomist Leonard Compagno in 1985 in Grahamstown before moving to Cape Town four years later resulted in a surge of regional interest. In the 1990s the popularity of white shark ecotourism in Gans Bay, False Bay and more recently Mossel Bay and Algoa Bay provide a major impetus for research on this iconic species. Research on inter alia distribution and movements, behaviour and genetics and has been published by Ramon Bonfil, Matt Dicken, Chrysa Gubili, Neil Hammerschlag, Nigel Hussey, Ryan Johnson, Alison Kock, Karl Laroche, Aidan Martin, Mike Meyer and Amanda Pardini.
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