A KZN diver (26) was bitten by a shark while diving off Protea Banks, near Shelly Beach earlier today.

Rudi Prinsloo of Mi7 Ambulance Service says they waited at the base for the dive charter to beach with the injured diver.

K9 Search and Rescue Port Shepstone along with NSRI Shelly Beach Station 20 were also in attendance at the Sonny Evans Small Craft Harbour in Shelly Beach.

Prinsloo says they immediately treated the man’s right hand.

“The tendons and nerves of the man’s hand were severely severed,” he adds.

They then transported him to Hibiscus Hospital.

It is believed the shark was a black tip shark, that is known to the divers.

“Divers have been diving with this particular shark for the last two or so years,” says Prinsloo.

Shark attacks in South Africa

Shark Spotters says that although rare, shark bites do occur in the country.

Their last updated statistics indicate that 248 unprovoked shark attacks (excluding today’s) have been recorded since recording started in 1905.

“Of these, most of them (103) have occurred in the Eastern Cape, 90 in KZN and 55 in the Western Cape. There are three species of shark in South Africa that are responsible for the majority of attacks; tiger, bull (or Zambezi) and white sharks,” their website states.

The KZN Sharks Board says the International Shark Attack File (Isaf) defines an ‘unprovoked attack’ as: “Incidents where an attack on a live human occurs in the shark’s natural habitat with no human provocation of the shark eg swimming or surfing.”

Isaf, according to the board, states that when a human interacts with a shark in some way, an attack is defined as a ‘provoked attack’.

“These include instances when divers are bitten after harassing or trying to touch sharks, attacks on spearfishers, attacks on people attempting to feed sharks, bites occurring while unhooking or removing a shark from a fishing net, and so forth,” the board’s website indicates.