Cape Town - A South African tour operator who has been giving bait to great white sharks just offshore from a popular swimming beach has been shut down by authorities after complaints that he was endangering the lives of bathers, the Cape Times newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Theo Ferreira sparked public outrage when he was spotted tossing "chum" (chopped fish) overboard just off the coast of Fish Hoek, a tourist town in False Bay, south of Cape Town.

"We've told Ferreira he is not allowed to operate his shark cage diving business or use his boat until an inquiry has been completed," said Marcel Kroese, who heads law enforcement at the ministry of environmental affairs.

"We need to establish if he has transgressed the conditions of the shark cage diving permit," he told the paper.

Ferreira, a self-styled shark expert, said he put chum into the sea about three kilometers offshore to attract a big shark away from the coast.

"After I heard there was a shark scare in False Bay on December 26, I wanted to get the shark out of the shallows into deep water and used the same method all shark researchers use to attract a shark in the right direction," he said.

Reckless endangerment

Members of the public have accused Ferreira of being reckless and endangering the lives of tourists, thousands of whom trek to Cape Town's beaches in the summer months.

A letter published by The Argus newspaper said a family had watched a charter boat which was full of people and using a shark cage attract huge sharks just offshore while holidaymakers and locals enjoyed Fish Hoek's beaches.

"At first we thought it was just another fishing boat trying to catch fish in the bay, but when we saw the huge fins of some of the sharks swimming around the boat we could not believe what we were seeing," the letter said.

In another letter a man said he and other surfers had left the water at Muizenberg (near Fish Hoek) on Saturday when a 3.5 meter long great white shark passed under them.

Since 2001, at least one surfer has died in an attack by a great white while a crayfish diver was severely injured by another near Cape Town.

Cage diving is also becoming increasingly popular in South Africa, costing up to R1 000 rand a pop, but top shark researcher Len Compagno said no link had so far been established between chumming for cage diving and attacks on bathers.