Pippa Mozambique: Day 43. Paindane Shark Attack

Paindane Bay is about 5km walk from Guinjata and a popular tourist destination. As Chess and I arrived there this morning and set up our towels, ready for a day of monitoring the fishes caught on the beach, we did not anticipate what we were about to see. Usually this beach is fairly quiet with a few small vessels and kayaks going out and bringing in small fish and the occasional octopus.
At 9:40am a small motorboat beached with about 8 fishermen onboard. People began running over and as one man ran past he turned and shouted to us, "Shark!"
We grabbed our bags and ran. By the time we reached the boat there was a large crowd of tourists, divers and locals observing. We peered through and saw shark after shark being pulled out of the small vessel. Altogether there were: 3 Scalloped hammerheads, 2 Guitar Fish (a very rare species), 1 Sandbar shark. They were all dead and they had all been caught on a longline. All these species are illegal to catch. The crowd began to melt away, back to their normal lives and sun tanning but we followed the fishermen with their sharks. The sharks were dragged through the shallows for about 400m until we came to a break in the sand dune.
The six sharks were dragged up the beach to this valley. It was here that we began to measure and record our data. We measure total length-from nose to tip of tail; fork length- nose to fork of tail; pre caudal length- nose to base of tail and width, we also collected vertebrae to age these creatures.

The six sharks being towed to the dunes.
Photo credit: Francesca Trotman

Sandbar shark (Carcharhinus plumbeus) female 164cm
Photo credit: Francesca Trotman

Scalloped hammerhead (Sphyma lewini) 262cm. Stomach projected
through mouth during times of high stress.
Photo credit: Francesca Trotman

Scalloped hammerhead (Sphyma lewini) 257cm. With two huge bites taken
out of the upper body and underside, presumably by another shark.
Photo credit: Francesca Trotman