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White sharks in Europe?

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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Huan, actually italy during the famous Matanzas there have been GWS in the nets. also there have been incidents of capture of GWS in the Med, but they are a much rarer sight
 
Mishu
Maybe I should have titled it White sharks in Northern Europe?
I realise that there are GWS in the Med but very few records north of The Med.
Strange really when you consider the food sources around Ireland and UK (seals,dolphins,tuna) but the last recorded catch was in the 70's from around La Rochelle.
 
About five years ago a GW took an Italian fisherman's catch. He videoed it and it was on TV... they definitely are about. it is thought that they go to med to give birth. Baby GWs were often seen around Cabo Verde islands in the 1970s.

There are stacks of GWs around Malta and they even proposed conservation programmes for them in 1999.

A total of 41 reliably-reported interactions involving direct unprovoked attacks on humans are recorded from the region of the Med. (not many in comparison to other areas). Fatalities were recorded in 49% of these cases and the great white shark was confirmed or reliably attributed as implicated in 54% of the total cases. The majority of Mediterranean cases have occurred (in decreasing order) within Italian, Croatian and Greek coastal waters.

A study by Ian Ferguson showed the following:

Cosmopolitan but rather infrequent or rare; from Gibraltar to the Bosphorus (not Black Sea) but more regular in Western and Central Mediterranean, all coasts but especially Western Sicily (Egadi Islands), Sicilian Channel and Tunisian Coasts from Cape Bon to Djerba; Maltese archipelago; occasional in Gulf of Lyons (Sete, Palavas & Grau-du-Rois), Côte d'Azur (now sporadic); Ligurian Sea (Varazze, Genova, south to La Spezia), Tyrrhenian Sea (Isola d'Elba; Sardinia; San Felice Circeo) and Ionian Sea, Calabria / Messina; once frequent in Northern Adriatic until 1970's, now sporadic and generally encountered on the former Yugoslavian side (Kvarner Gulf and Dalmatia); sporadic in the Aegean, generally northerly sites (Thermaikos, Thassos, Kavalla, Foça); sporadic off Cyprus, Lebanon and Israel ('Akko); captures from Libya, Egypt, Algeria and Morocco poorly documented although the species is recorded on these coasts.

They are out there guys... but unlikely to be encountered close to the coasts.

Another thought... GW eat fish for the first few years of their life and then switch to mammals.. so as full on adults they would have to live in areas closer to their diet.
 
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Ey!!! we are diving in here and I dont wanna start thinking about a huuuge teethy smiling face while doing aspetto!
 
In the Med there was White Sharks until Monk Seal was almost extinguished.
Nowadays is incredibly strange to see one, but is seen during the 'Tunara' in Sicily (July, August I think).

Greetings,
Edu
 
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Yack, I dont want to feel like I need to watch my back while diving here in UK.... hmm I better change my setup of having my bleeding fish tied to my waist while hunting some more... On the other hand I could do with couple of degrees warmer water.. so there are good sides to this.. I guess...

Pekka
 
Here is a map pointing out area's where Great White Sharks can be found!

Said :wave
 

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coool... i guess that doesn't leave us much option than to go ice diving...!! hahahahaha.. they are all over, practically. And in the tropics we have the tigers, which just love spearfishermen with juicy belts... :p
 
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ice-diving?? You forget about Orca's/Killer whales?? No thanx, i'll take my chances with GW's!!! At least they don't hunt in packs.............

Regards
miles
 
There was a documentary on Animal Planet yesterday... Orcas have not been known to attack divers/swimmers.. (just in that horrific movie) very few incidents..
 
No Orca attacks in the WILD - there have been attacks in captivity (unsuprisingly).
 
Hiya

I know that there are no recorded attacks on humans by Orca's in the wild. HOWEVER, i have been in their company on a COUPLE of occasions and they SCARE me silly!!!!


When-ever we get schools of dolphins, all you have to do is run your boat parallel to the school and see whether they want to play. If you keep 30-50m away from them, moving at about the same speed they're moving, most of the time some dolphins will break away from the school and come and play with the boat. They'll jump out, just in front of the boat, and generally act silly, like doing jumps and somersaults. I normally thoroughly enjoy their antics.

HOWEVER, the ORCAS i've encountered ALSO act in a similar way!!!! Watching a 3-5TON animal jumping out of the water RIGHT in front of your boat is extremely unnerving!!!!!!!! Remember, we go 40nm offshore in a 6.5m Semi Rigid inflatable and these cute buggers can be as big as 8m!!!!

Besides, i've seen them hunting penguins on the ice, when they break peices of ice off and then chomping those penguins. Now imagine they figure out what tasty morsels are aboard boats...........................scary though!!!

Oh, and i sure would not like to be the FIRST to be attacked by a ORCA!!!!

Regards
miles
 
Me neither!

However, there is no reason for them to eat you for energetic reasons as we have little fat and are simply not worth eating - so unless you are very fat - you should be OK!

I think I need to go on a diet......
 
orca are friendlly and expected animels not like the shark
i have found them one of the nices animels in the world
here are some fotos from victoria bay british colombia canada
orca.jpg
 
miles said:
Hiya


HOWEVER, the ORCAS i've encountered ALSO act in a similar way!!!! Watching a 3-5TON animal jumping out of the water RIGHT in front of your boat is extremely unnerving!!!!!!!! Remember, we go 40nm offshore in a 6.5m Semi Rigid inflatable and these cute buggers can be as big as 8m!!!!

Besides, i've seen them hunting penguins on the ice, when they break peices of ice off and then chomping those penguins. Now imagine they figure out what tasty morsels are aboard boats...........................scary though!!!

Oh, and i sure would not like to be the FIRST to be attacked by a ORCA!!!!

Regards
miles

lol Miles! I have been doing lots of documentary watching lately as i was ill in bed for a day and half... they were saying that Orcas are as big as an elephant!! (same weight, as you have already mentioned). wow! when they film them its hard to get a feeling of how large they are.

did you see the Blue Planet series? How the pod of killer whales followed a grey whale and her calf, attacked the calf and all they ate was the lower jaw and tongue!~!! After a six hour hunt and torment... they got it all on really good footage.

I can see the damage they would do to a diver... have you seen the games of tennis they have with baby seals?
 
not all the orcas are killers !!
most of them eat only fish ' orcas are from the same family of dolfins..
 
Hiya

Mundial, i whole-heartedly agree with you that Orca's are one of the most stunning homeothermics that exist. I'm amazed at the type of behaviour these animals show. I've seen them break off peices of ice, then tilt the broken ice peice, thereby fliping the penguins standed on the broken off ice into the water. I've also seen documentaries on them grabbing seals on the shore!!! They ram themselves up onto a beach, grab a seal/sea lion, then roll back into the water!!!! They're known to feed on Poikilthermics as well as Homeothermics. This encompasses at least five species of seals, the dugong, thirty species of fish, turtles, two species of squid, seven species of seabird, and at least twenty-four species of cetacean, including the massive Blue Whale.

A bit more history on "The Wolves of the Sea". In 1758 they were named Dephinus orca - 'demon dolphin'. In 1860, however, a new genus was created, Orcinus, in recognition of the differences between this species and the smaller dolphins. They're known to attain a maximum weight exceeding 10tons and a maximum length of close to 10meters!! They're also known to live between 25-90years!!!!

Soooooooo, my reasoning is that if they're cunning enough to grab seals on LAND and knock penguins OFF ice, it'll be foolhardy NOT to be scared of them!!!! Especially if you have a big bugger jumping around your boat, 40nm from nearest land!!!

Regarding the issue: Diver vs. Great White vs. Killer whales, i'd rather stick with the DEVIL i know!!!!!

Regards
miles
 
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