Hazards of Kayak Fishing

South African Fisherman survives shark attack

'Yak fishermen sometimes like to think of themselves as a breed apart, and certainly Kayak fishing has its challenges. Just ask Werner Coetzee, a 35 year old 'yak fisherman from Johannesburg - he survived a shark attack while fishing off Noordhoek in Port Elizabeth, South Africa two days before Christmas!

“The shark came from underneath me, the same way it klaps a seal. I never saw him until it happened," Coetzee,told the media. The great white shark emerged out of the water and knocked  the front of his fishing Kayak so hard that he was flung up into the air Coetzee said.

"I have a Pinnacle kayak which takes a big punch, but he knocked me and the front of the kayak about 2.5m minimum out of the water,” he recounted. "My kayak and all my tackle weigh 38kg and I weigh 102kg - so you can imagine."

Coetzee said when he landed back in the water, his kayak landed next to him but upside down.

"That was when I saw it was a shark. It was about four metres long. He was just a few feet away from me, biting into the front of the kayak." “We eyeballed each other and I saw him change his attention from the kayak to me."

Coetzee said he then started pulling himself onto the hull of the boat.

“I lay there for about a minute, although it seemed like much longer, waiting for the next hit. But it never came.”

Coetzee said the shark moved away - probably because he did not regard the fibreglass the kayak was made out of as a delicacy.

"He obviously didn’t like the taste of fibreglass and that is why he moved off.”

Coetzee said two of his fishing rods and his sunglasses had not been as lucky as he had - they disappeared during the attack.