At the beginning of November 2024, a Great white shark was spotted in the waters of Port-Cros, in the middle of the Hyères islands, in the PACA region. A very rare event in the Mediterranean given that the species is threatened.
A shark spotted in French waters. At the beginning of November, a boater filmed a shark almost 4 meters long in the heart of the waters of the Port-Cros National Park, in the Var, reported France 3. Contacted, Samuel Iglesias, expert from the National Museum of Natural History (MNHN) in Paris as well as Nicolas Ziani, scientific director of the Phocéen Shark Study Group (GPER), confirmed that it was a Large shark white.
“An extinction of more than 90%”
“It is a little smaller than the female observed in Camargue in 2022”, Nicolas Ziani told the media. The presence of Great White Sharks is rare in the Mediterranean Sea. As the scientific director recalls, “this species is considered critically endangered with more than 90% extinction.“. Since 1600, only 794 sharks have been observed in the Mediterranean, according to the Phocaean Shark Study Group.
“We imagine that it is there because it finds in the waters of the national park a protected space and an important reservoir of food… But it is also an animal capable of great migrations of several thousand kilometers.” confided Nicolas Ziani to Nice morning before reassuring about the great shyness of this species, which “flees as soon as it sees too much human activity.”
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