When there are sharks: Liesel Benjamin, Spotter

At night, I was dreaming about sharks, neh. I was so nervous!” says Benjamin during a conversation in the temporary container offices at Muizenberg.

The glass doors brought in the current mood of the ocean, which once was only a few steps away for our beach spotters. Now, their view featured construction cranes and the dying summer season traffic. Liesel Benjamin is a spotter and the primary breadwinner at home. In September, she will be celebrating 20 years in the role as a spotter. As we walk through her earlier memories of the role, her narration holds a surety over who she is as a spotter, and pride in how far she has come.

Pictures of Liesel Benjamin. Left: Liesel in her early years, right: Liesel the veteran. Photo © Marike Herselman

She goes on to share of her first shark sighting at Muizenberg lookout. “I was not sure whether it was one. We didn’t have the new radios; we had the old ones where we could phone privately… The St. James spotter was an old spotter. I had seen one during training, but when you’re on your own, you are so nervous. He explained to me and confirmed that it was a shark.” The memory is fuzzy now, almost two decades old.

As Benjamin recalls, she paints a much more vibrant time. Often after a shark sighting, the beach closure brought attention to the spotters, almost as if they had a neon sign saying, “Sorry for the drama, but we can tell you why!” Tourists and locals alike flocked to the lookout point, enquiring about what shark was sighted and how the whole process worked whenever the siren hailed.

“I was so nervous speaking to people and answering questions. Yeah, after a while you do it with closed eyes.”

There is a deep love and fondness for Muizenberg in Benjamin’s recollections. So much of it comes from the utter beauty displayed by the bay during her early years.

“The weather conditions have changed dramatically. And also, the water conditions. I remember before… joh, the water was always so clear. Especially during season. It was easy to spot a white shark. The water visibility is declining a lot.”

“Our datasheets didn’t have enough space for all the sharks we would see at once. I felt sorry for the beach spotter who had to run up and down to change the flags.”

Aside from the natural beauty of Muizenberg, the public also played a role in Benjamin being able to reflect positively on her journey. As a female spotter, being stationed alone at the top of a mountain with some foot traffic, safety can be a concern. She was never made to feel unsafe. She does, however, mention that often her male colleagues were approached instead of her. The public didn’t perceive her as a spotter at first.

“They would approach the men when we were working in pairs. ‘But I am the spotter here. I am the spotter here.’ Now it is much better.”

Her confidence in engaging with the public, sense of care for the oceans and sharks, and decades-long experience have made Benjamin an advocate. Education is the key to driving change, she believes.

“I like to educate people and kids. When people think about sharks, they think that they are there to eat them. They think about the bad movies. Education is good. When I say that there are no sharks around here, people say that it’s a good thing. It’s not a good thing! There is a big impact when they are not there. People don’t understand it. So, it’s always good to explain it to them. It is good that we have the Education.”