ZIHUATANEJO, Guerrero, Mexico — The storyline may sound strikingly familiar to fans of 1970s horror flicks: A sudden series of gruesome shark attacks in a resort area has officials caught between public safety concerns and the interests of the local tourist industry.
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But this is no remake of Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws.” It’s the real story of the Pacific Coast resort of Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo, where a spate of recent attacks against surfers — two of them deadly — have put locals on edge and the tourism industry at risk.
The first incident came on April 28 when 24-year-old Adrian Ruiz of San Francisco was bitten on the leg while surfing with a friend at Troncones, approximately 25 miles northwest of the Zihuatanejo city center. The bite took a 15-inch chunk out of Ruiz’s right thigh, officials said, and he died of blood loss shortly after arriving at a local hospital.
Then last Friday, Osvaldo Mata, a 21-year-old university student, was attacked while surfing with friends near his home in Pantla, 12 miles northwest of Zihuatanejo. According to police reports, the shark bit off one of Mata’s hands and took two bites from his thigh, breaking his femur and leaving a 12-inch wound. His friends pulled him to shore, but he bled to death on the beach before medics could arrive.
The next day, 49-year-old Bruce Grimes, an Ixtapa resident originally from Satellite Beach, Fla., was bitten on the right arm as he surfed alone off Playa Linda beach, just 8 miles from Zihuatanejo and 4 miles from Ixtapa’s main tourist drag. Grimes was lucky: He was able to paddle to shore and drive himself to a local hospital, where it took more than 100 stitches to close his wounds.
Shark sightings are common here, but shark attacks are not. In fact, prior to the recent episodes, no one had been killed by a shark anywhere along Mexico’s Pacific coast in more than three decades, according official records.
“To not have any attacks and then to have so many in such a short period of time is really strange,” said Florentino Zavala Clímaco, environmental director for the municipio, or county, of Zihuatanejo.
“We’re not sure why it’s happening, but we need to find out.”
An economic engine
The municipio of Zihuatanejo features two major tourist attractions: a glitzy, modern resort on a long, open-sea beach at Ixtapa; and the city of Zihuatanejo, home to several small beaches strung around a protected bay. An estimated 2.6 million tourists — including 400,000 foreigners — visited the municipio’s beaches in 2007, their expenditures serving as the primary fuel for the local economy.
“Tourism isn’t just the largest industry here, it’s the only industry,” said Guillermo Catalán, the municipio’s tourism director, who estimated that 95 percent of the local workface make their living either directly or indirectly from tourism.
And so after Ruiz was killed on April 28 at Troncones, authorities leapt into action. The following day, personnel from the Zihuatanejo Harbor Master set baited hooks near the site of the attack and caught 11 sharks, which they then hauled back to the pier at Zihuatanejo and gutted in a very public display.
“It was a big show,” said Enrique Rodríguez, leader of the local environmental organizations Society for Animal Protection and S.O.S. Bahía. “They wanted everyone to think they were doing something.”
But environmentalists decried the action, pointing out that several species of shark are protected under Mexican law. The shark-killings quickly stopped.
After the attacks against Mata and Grimes, local officials and industry leaders quickly countered with a damage-control public relations campaign. In a press conference on May 25, they pointed out that the attacks had all come against people surfing in deep water, and had all happened at beaches some distance from Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo. No bathers had been bitten at any tourist beaches, they reminded the public.
Even so, they said, they had upped the number of lifeguards at local tourist spots and asked the local fishing fleet to keep an eye out for sharks. Meanwhile, the Navy had begun warning beachgoers and patrolling the coastline with boats and aircraft. And the municipio had asked wildlife experts for input and formally requested that the Natural Resources Secretariat send its top shark expert from Mexico City.
“We are not worried about news of these attacks getting out; people have a right to be informed,” Alberto González, head of the Ixtapa hotel owners association, told The News in Mexico City. “This is not ‘Jaws.’ We are not hiding anything.”
But when José Leonardo Castillo Geniz, a shark expert with the National Fishing Institute, suggested to the media that authorities should close beaches in Zihuatanejo, locals cringed.
“We are asking the federal government to come and study the problem and to help with vigilance, not to come down here and close beaches,” said Catalán, the tourism director.
Jaime Vázquez, the municipio’s head of civil protection, also dismissed the possibility of a beach closure, again noting that attacks had occurred only at isolated surfing spots. But in an indication of the influence of the local tourist industry, he referred most questions about the local response to González, the hotelier, who he said had been chosen as spokesman for the effort.
No sign of signs
Since the attack against Ruiz, environmentalists have asked that officials post warning signs at local beaches. But Rodríguez, the local activist, says he saw no signs posted at Troncones when he went there Sunday, nearly a month after Ruiz was killed.
Troncones belongs to the neighboring municipio of la Unión, but as of Tuesday afternoon, no signs had been posted at Ixtapa or Zihuatanejo beaches, either. Municipal officials said the signs are in the process of being painted and should be posted soon.
Tourists to the area showed a mixed awareness of the problem. Alfonso Lagunas, 28, of Ciudad Altamirano, state of Guerrero, said he had heard reports of the attacks before arriving in Ixtapa with his wife and 2-year-old son. He said staff at their hotel had also told them of the incidents.
But Jeremy Puma, 30, and Courtney Richard, 31, of Los Angeles, said they had been to two Ixtapa resorts since arriving Sunday and no one had mentioned shark attacks.
Puma, a surfing enthusiast, had even asked hotel staff about local surfing opportunities.
“They just told me where to rent a board and where to get a taxi,” he said.
Searching for answers
Many locals point to this season’s lingering cold water currents — which usually leave the area in March — and wonder if they’ve helped attract new, more aggressive sharks to the area. Environmentalists say the idea has merit, and add that an abundance of prey in local waters might also be to blame. They want to know if global warming might be playing a role as well.
The species of shark that attacked the surfers has yet to be determined. Media reports following Ruiz’s death quoted officials saying he was killed by a tiger shark, while Grimes, a seasoned surfer, says he recognized the animal that bit him as a bull shark.
The lack of definitive answers has fueled some local speculation of a Jaws-like creature.
“I think it’s the same shark responsible for all the attacks,” said Álvaro Vázquez, a 42-year-old taxi driver and avid surfer. “He got a taste for human flesh and now he wants more.”
Lucía Romo, who runs a souvenir stand at a local tourist market, wants the government to forget about scientists and start recruiting hunters.
“What we need is to find someone who knows how to kill a shark,” she said.
But officials and environmentalists hope that scientific investigation will put an end to the uncertainty and fear.
Rodríguez called for aerial surveys and said he would even support allowing fishermen to capture a small number of sharks for the purpose of species identification.
“What we don’t want is some mass psychosis that leads to a massive shark killing,” he said.
Local leaders insist that won’t happen.
“There’s not going to be any more killing,” González said. “We are pro-ecology.”
But until the answers come — and the shark attacks stop — officials and residents remain anxious that the incidents might start scaring tourists away. Catalán noted that Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo saw a jump in visitors in 2006 after Hurricane Wilma devastated Cancún and political protests took over Oaxaca City.
Fortunately, he said, there’s been no sign of a backlash so far. In fact, hotel occupancy has been up over 2007 since the attacks began.
But locals know that another mauling — or a beach closure — could lead to economic trouble.
“Those of us who rely on tourism are definitely worried,” said Vázquez, the surfing taxi driver. “People have a lot of choices. They don’t have to come to Zihuatanejo.”
Jonathan Clark is managing editor of The News in Mexico City.
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