Janine Lochrenberg’s sister held her head as she died after a shark attack off South Africa’s coast.
The retired medical physicist, 65, was swimming with her local open-water club around 8 a.m. Tuesday off Orient Beach in KuGumo City when the predator struck. Witnesses said she suffered bites to her thigh and upper arm and bled out in the water before fellow swimmers could pull her back to shore.
Lochrenberg had taken a precaution that many swimmers trust: she wore a magnetic repellent band on her ankle, club members told the outlet. The device is designed to ward sharks off by distorting their sense of electroreception, the biological mechanism that lets them detect electrical fields from prey. It failed to protect her.
Her sister Margot was there in the water and cradled her as the attack’s aftermath unfolded. She believes Lochrenberg bled out before reaching shore, she said.
“She’d made peace with that,” Margot explained, referring to the known danger in those waters. “She had a deep affinity with the water and was a remarkable person.”
Margot added that her sibling “loved the water so much” and had been fully aware of the “elevated shark presence” in the area.
The couple was reportedly looking forward to retiring together and going on a road trip. That future was cut short Tuesday morning.
Lochrenberg’s partner, Barbara Briceland, remembered her as lively, intelligent and discerning in comments to the BBC.
“She was highly intelligent, lots of fun, kind, in a quietish way, thoughtful, well-loved with a love of life,” Briceland said.
The attack marked the first recorded shark fatality in South Africa this year. The country’s coastline, particularly around the Eastern Cape, has long been known for great white and bull shark activity that poses serious risk to swimmers and surfers.
Open-water swimming clubs in shark-prone regions often debate the effectiveness of deterrent devices, which range from magnetic bands to electrical shark shields. None offers guaranteed protection, and Tuesday’s fatality adds a grim data point to that ongoing discussion among ocean athletes.
