Sharks!

Rascist sharks in the Cape are chomping on whiteys and leaving coloureds and blacks alone.

Yet another white person, Durbanville diver Henri Murray, 22, was killed while spear-fishing this weekend.

A massive Great White Shark emerged from the deep to snatch him. By last night, his body had still not been found; only his car keys in a piece of wetsuit.

His friend, Piet van Niekerk, 23, only escpaed after shooting his spear gun at the massive beast near Miller's Point.

According to Sharks Board statistics there have been more than 70 attacks in Cape waters since 1990.

And the board's head of research Jeremy Cliff recalls that only two of those were people of colour.

These were the laatie surfer JP Andrews, who lost his leg but survived after bring attacked near Muizenberg last April. And Gansbaai poacher Nkosinathi Mayaba was killed off Pearly Beach.

In aother incident Nazri Gasant was spear-fishing with his friend when a shark circled them a few times but did not actually attack.

A National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) volunteer points out that several of the victims were not only white but also foreign.

This racial profiling of Great Whites was shown in the movie Jaws IV, in which the shark swallowed white people but spat out the only black person it attacked.

The NSRI volunteer confirms the terrifying beasts, which can be the length of two saloon cars, prefer to eat whites.

"But I think that's just coincidence. It's probably because more white people are board surfers and do spear-fishing," he says.

Other experts speculate that richer white people in expensive wetsuits may resemble seals and be more attractive to hungry sharks.

Cliff says the practice of spear-fishing, with fish bleeding into the water, is likely to attract predators.

"As a spear-fisherman myself...it's risky. It's very attractive to sharks," says Cliff.

Spear-fishing means going deeper in than wave riders and that means you are at greater risk of being spotted by a shark.

Cliff says it is impossible to say whether the same shark was responsible for the three attacks last year--on Andrews, Mayaba and Tyna Webb, 77, who was killed by a Great White near Fish Hoek.

Only Tanya's red bathing cap was found after the attack. And she was also one of the few victims who was not wearing a diving suit.

We asked Cliff whether sharks prefer swimmers in wetsuits.

He says those who stay in longer are more likley to be bitten.

Murray was apparently attacked some 200 to 300 metres off Miller's Point around 4 pm.

Rescue craft sent to search for Murray included a Metro Rescue helicopter and an NSRI boat.

It's Monday, so that must have been the best article from the Daily Voice from the past week. Actually, that might have been the best one ever. But, to review, these are the other contenders...

...the "corpse" that awoke from the dead;

...a handicapped man whom the newspaper brutally mocked;

...the witch doctor that townsfolk said was reincarnated as a snake--a snake with glasses;

...a delicate, and much delayed, operation;

...the second coming;

...and the most offensive headline ever.

Oh, and I almost forgot. In that second image at the start of this entry, you can see the sidebar, with the headline, "You Eat Me Then I'll Eat You." It includes recipes for Shark Fin Soup and Shark Biltong.

Yum.