Experts announcement these encounters are harmless. Credit: Mi españa 100% Youtube
A bluish shark caused panic among swimmers connected a formation successful Calpe aft being mistaken for a vulnerable predator. The incident, filmed by a beachgoer and uploaded to YouTube, shows nan animal swimming adjacent to shore, passing a begetter and his young kid earlier moving away. The footage does not uncover which of Calpe’s beaches it was.
The bluish shark (Prionace glauca), known successful Spain arsenic nan tintorera, is simply a communal type successful nan Mediterranean and 1 of nan astir wide sharks successful nan world. Averaging astir 2.5 metres successful length, it is not considered fierce and poses small threat to humans. Yet, nan sighting connected Sunday August 10 was capable to spark alarm, contempt experts noting these encounters are harmless.
The guidance is successful stark opposition to attitudes successful different parts of nan world, wherever diving pinch bluish sharks is simply a sought-after experience. In nan Azores, for example, visitors salary to dive alongside them successful offshore sites for illustration Faial and Princess Alice, drawn by nan rich | Atlantic waters that pull nan sharks’ favourite prey, specified arsenic tuna and squid.
Similar encounters are marketed successful Mexico’s Cabo San Lucas, South Africa’s Gansbaai Bay, nan Bahamas’ Cat Island, and moreover Hawaii’s Oahu and Molokai, wherever bluish sharks are prized sightings for divers.
These destinations actively beforehand bluish shark tourism, highlighting their graceful swimming and debased consequence to humans. By contrast, nan Calpe sighting shows how, successful nan Mediterranean, a deficiency of familiarity often fuels unnecessary fear. Marine experts reason that amended nationalist consciousness could thief displacement perceptions, turning moments of panic into opportunities to appreciate 1 of nan ocean’s astir singular migratory predators — a type tin of travelling up to 5,000 kilometres during its yearly journeys.