Shark victim is heading back to the ocean

A Cape Town surfer and diver, who like British tourist Chris Sullivan fought off a great white shark and lived to tell the tale, is now planning to make sharks his livelihood, but in an eco-friendly way.

Craig Bovim, 38, who was attacked by a shark off Scarborough in 2002, has built a yacht and wants to offer a "hands-off, observation-based great white shark viewing experience", similar to that of a national park, rather than the controversial cage-and-chum experience.

"I don't want to use chum because I believe in offering a more natural experience," Bovim told Weekend Argus. Earlier this week he visited Sullivan, a 32-year-old teacher from Cornwall, who needed three hours of surgery to his right leg after he was attacked on Monday at Dunes off Noordhoek.

Bovim can still vividly recall details of his attack, which happened the day before Christmas 2002. He had just come up from the seabed with a crayfish when a large shark appeared.

"I mistook it for a whale but then I saw the teeth sticking out," he said. He was about 60 metres off The Point in deep water and the shark swam so close he could see every scar and parasite on its huge body.

Bovim said before he had a chance to make up his mind what to do the shark turned away from him.

"I couldn't see it so I stuck my head out of the water. Then I saw its fin coming straight for me. Its back appeared and I tried to move out of its path."

Just as Bovim expelled water from his snorkel, the shark turned and lunged straight for his head.

"All I saw was this terrible-looking mouth coming at me and I threw my hands up. I found myself with both arms in his mouth underwater with blood everywhere."

Bovim said at that moment he was convinced he was dying.

"I actually felt very calm; it was an unusual space I was in."

Then adrenaline kicked in and Bovim began a fight for his life.

"I started hitting the shark with my forehead and knees and managed to pull my right arm out of its mouth. My hand appeared to be missing but it actually wasn't - it was just pulled right back."

He then managed to get his left arm out.

"And then I sank because I had filled up with so much water and also because I was wearing a heavy weight-belt."

Bovim knew if he didn't get the belt off he would surely drown but he basically didn't have the use of his hands.

"I actually used a piece of bone in my thumb to manoeuvre the buckle open and then the belt fell off and I floated up."

Terrified the shark would re-appear, Bovin started swimming to shore but still had to battle over kelp beds and rocks before he managed to catch a wave onto the beach.

"What saved me was my doctor, who had drips into me within minutes because she had drips at her home near the beach."

Bovim's injuries were extensive - he needed over 1 000 stitches and still only has 20 percent use of his right hand - but nine months after the attack he was back in the water.

"It's a big part of my rehabilitation so I surf often. I went for my first snorkel in December but after I caught one crayfish I got out of the water immediately."

And his attack, far from turning him against great white sharks, has actually deepened his awareness of their vulnerability and exploitation. He was part of a pressure group called the Shark Concern Group which was set up after Tyna Webb was killed by a great white shark off Fish Hoek in November.

Among its members are scientists, academics, tour operators and fishermen, and it aims to ensure better environmental practice in the ocean as well as to ask the department of environmental affairs for a review of chumming in the light of the recent attacks.

"We don't want to threaten the industry but we would like to propose a ban on the baiting, touching and teasing of sharks."

He said they were also concerned that small sharks had now become a target catch and were being exported as well as being used extensively as bait for shark cage operations.

"You don't need to be a scientist to work out that this means less food for big sharks, who eat little sharks."

Bovim, who runs a small civil engineering company, says he hopes to sell his business to his employees and to launch his new venture soon.

JP Andrew, the Lakeside teenager who lost a leg to a Great White off Muizenberg Beach, has also since returned to the water.