When the shark bites…

Last week, limbs and lives were lost in four attacks occurring between Tuesday and Wednesday, and involving three Russians and one Ukrainian.

Within days, the alleged ‘culprit’ of the attacks – a rogue Oceanic white tip shark - was found and slaughtered.

Over the last week a number of theories have been developed as to what (if anything) is changing the behaviour of this species of these particular sharks, which are generally deep, open ocean creatures that feed on molluscs and bony fish.

One hypothesis put forward by the director of South Sinai Conservation, Mohammed Salem, is that the attacks stem from uncontrolled fishing in popular diving areas – with sharks becoming bolder and more aggressive in their hunt for prey, owing to a growing shortage of their natural food in the ocean.

Others include theories of ‘baited’ dives – where dive leaders bait sharks to attract them for tourists wanting to see these magnificent creatures.

Rumours of dead sheep being dumped into the Red Sea have also led some to attribute this to the changes in shark behaviour. 

Local conservation biologist Dr Adriana Vella says that changes in normal behaviours of sharks may occur in rare situations, and may have been caused by an individual specimen learning to change behaviour.

“If one individual may have learned to find a food source in a unique way, which happens to be to the detriment of humans, it is a problem, but this always needs careful investigation to make sure the specific individual is identified as this may end up in a witch hunt where all shark species and individuals suffer, further affecting these already vulnerable species in the world.”

Vella advises towards the need to find the true cause of the incident through thorough research before blaming and killing any marine species without proper investigation.

Dr Adriana Vella and the Conservation Biology Research Group at the University of Malta have been involved with research of shark and ray species for a good number of years. This research does not only consider identification of species landed by fishermen, recording their body sizes and sex in detail but also involves tissue sampling for detailed genetic analyses.  Information which is essential to understand the status of the population being exploited or affected.  Indeed many of the species landed locally show clear signs of population declines and directing toward urgent need for more research and effective management.

“With increasing protective measures put forward by various international agreements and legislations to protect these vulnerable and endangered species, it is important to highlight that while rare cases of presumed attacks need to be investigated in detail to solve and prevent any possible harm to man, it is essential to make sure that this is done with the greatest respect for these marine species, as integral and necessary part of our marine ecosystems.”

As for how our seas are changing due to climate change, Dr. Vella says there are various issues that might become problematic and the one important way to solve many of such problems is to enhance marine research and monitoring to keep track of changes and where possible plan and manage for these adequately and in time.

Shark attacks in the Mediterranean

According to the Globetrotter’s dive guide to Malta and Gozo, the deep-water trench between Malta and Sicily is said to contain the world’s second largest shark population, though both sightings and attacks on humans are rare.

The last fatality in this region took place off the island of Elba in 1989 – when a great white shark, nicknamed ‘Willie’ in the Italian press, attacked and killed a 47-year-old scuba diver.

Luciano Costanzo went out spear fishing with his 19-year-old son and a friend one mile off the coast, near the island of Elba. From a depth of about 75 feet, Costanzo suddenly resurfaced, screaming "Shark!" He lunged for the boat but was jerked back below before he could reach it.

Eyewitnesses, including the victim’s son, reported that the shark then leapt out of the water twice, its jaws clamped around Costanzo's waist, before vanishing beneath the waves.

The shark was reportedly anywhere between 20 and 25 feet in length.

Almost 10 years later, in 1998, a thirty-mile stretch of beach along the Italian coast was closed for bathing after a 20ft great white shark attacked a cabin cruiser 12 miles off shore.

The shark was captured on video by Stefano Catalani, an amateur fisherman, when it attacked his boat off the resort of Senigallia. As a result, authorities banned swimming along much of the coast of the Marches region, from Marotta, 30 miles south of Rimini, to Civitanova, south of Ancona.

Shark attacks in Malta

In Malta, only one fatal shark attack is known to have taken place. Jack Smedley’s death on 20 July 1956 is widely accepted to have been caused by a rare shark attack in the picturesque St Thomas’ Bay.

Smedley, who was a retired British navy officer, went swimming with his Maltese student Tony Grech, when he was attacked and pulled underwater by what Grech identified as a shark.

Grech later reported the sensation of feeling what he described as ‘something like a donkey’s back’ brushing past him in the water. As for Smedley, he disappeared in a pool of blood, and his body was never recovered.

Although his death was generally attributed to a shark attack – most likely a great white pursuing tuna, in what was at the time the site of an active tonnara (tuna fishery) - there are other, more imaginative conspiracy theories to account for Smedley’s disappearance.

An account by a certain Charles Mizzi, on the di-ve.com website, suggests that Smedley may have been an undercover secret agent, and that his death may have been the work by Russian ‘underwater’ assassins.

The last recorded catch of a great white shark was on 17 April 1987, when local fisherman Alfredo Cutajar caught a female said to be 7.13 metres long: making it the largest recorded fish ever landed locally, and only the second largest in the Mediterranean. The contents of her stomach are said to have included a two-metre dolphin, a two-metre blue shark and a turtle.

This was the second time Cutajar landed a great white: a fact that earned him the nickname ‘Son of God’.

Along with the basking shark and the manta (devil) ray, the great white shark has been a protected species in Malta since 1999.

These sharks are listed on the IUCN red list of endangered species, being hunted for their fins used in oriental shark fin soup. Landing of these fish is illegal