An open-water swimmer was fatally mauled by a shark at a South African beach this week, despite the fact she was wearing a device purported to repel the ocean predators.
On Tuesday morning, 65-year-old Janine Lochrenberg was out with a group of ocean swimmers at Orient Beach off South Africa’s southeastern coast. Eastern Cape police spokesperson Col. Siphokazi Mawisa told the Associated Press that police were called to the beach at 7:00 a.m. local time.
Open-ocean swimmer Mike Loewe told state broadcaster SABC that he had been swimming with Lochrenberg and others when the attack happened. “We were all in the water, swimming,” he recounted. “We were wearing [magnetic shark repellents] on our feet. She had one on.”
One of the other swimmers realized she was injured after they heard screaming. “She was very much in a distressed way,” continued Loewe. “She had been severely bitten. It looked like it was an injury to her thigh and upper arm. She was brought ashore. We tried to raise her pulse, but unfortunately, she had passed on. Medics declared her dead.”
In response, city officials closed both Orient and another nearby beach. “Warnings are also being issued at other beaches, and members of the public are requested to remain vigilant, adhere to all safety advisories, and comply with instructions issued by the relevant,” said municipal spokesperson Luzuku Buku.
The type of magnetic shark repellant device being worn by Lochrenberg at the time of her death is currently unknown. However, this is not the first time in recent memory an open-water swimmer has been killed while wearing a similar device. Last year, Erica Fox went missing while swimming at Lovers Point in Pacific Grove, California, only for her body to be recovered a week later with a “shark band” attached to her ankle. While the devices are marketed as being able to deter sharks using electromagnetic waves (including in endorsements by shark attack survivor Bethany Hamilton), a 2018 study by Save Our Seas Foundation Project Leader Dr. Charlie Huveneers found the devices to have “limited to no measurable effect on white shark behavior.”
