The specimen was photographed at the beginning of November by a fisherman in the waters of the Port-Cros national park, in the Var. A sign of hope for a species which has almost disappeared from the waters of the Mediterranean.
Forget the shark in the Seine with Netflix sauce. This shark, a real one, was seen in waters that it should never have deserted. At the beginning of November, a great white shark was filmed by a fisherman from Toulon in the Port-Cros national park, near the Var coast. The specimen was observed walking to the east of the island of Porquerolles, 600 meters off the coast of Pointe du Sarranier, in an area renowned for the richness of its fauna and flora.
A Var morningHenri Cavillon, the 67-year-old amateur fisherman who captured the great white shark on video, recounts his encounter with the shark. “That morning, I didn't take anything, he remembers. And then, around 11 o'clock, I saw this fin from afar. Even though at sea we see a lot of things, he aroused my curiosity, so I approached and cut the engine when I arrived 20 meters from him. Afterwards, it was he who slowly approached me. He passed next to the boat, then under it another time and after three or four passes, he left quietly.”
“Great news for this species”
The amateur fisherman shares his find with members of the Association for the Study and Conservation of Selacians, who in turn pass the video to Matthieu Lapinski, president of the Ailerons association and the “participatory sciences” observatory. » around cartilaginous fish in the Mediterranean. Transmitted to the National Museum of Natural History, the images are then analyzed by researchers who confirm the discovery.
In a message posted on Facebook on November 14, Matthieu Lapinski welcomed this news. “The conclusions are simple, it is a great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias), says the specialist. Great news for this classified species “Critically Endangered” and having almost disappeared from our French coasts, and even from the Mediterranean due to very disparate levels of protection depending on the country. […] The individual has not been observed again since.”
According to the latest estimates from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the population of great white sharks in the Mediterranean is very low: around 250 specimens and none are marked, unlike certain ocean sharks. Atlantic or Pacific. According to several experts, this decline can be explained beyond direct catches by intensive fishing of bluefin tuna, the main food of the white shark in Mediterranean waters. Hence the rarity of their observation. In September 2022, a great white shark from the Mediterranean had, however, already been filmed by fishermen, not far from the coasts of the Camargue.
In the Mediterranean, more than 50% of shark and ray species are threatened with extinction, including the great white shark. On a global scale, however, the species is “only” considered “vulnerable”.
