The border town of France was taken by a moment of fever caused by two blue sharks, however harmless.
It was around 1 p.m. when the beach at Portbou, crushed by the heat, came out of its torpor this Sunday.
Two blue sharks had just made their way to the edge of the beach causing a natural movement of panic among swimmers uninformed of the dangerousness of these animals.
Some swimmers crowded onto a diving platform in the middle of the bay when others quickly fled to shore for safety.
The scene was filmed and we actually see the sharks very close to the beach.
?Ensurt a Portbou per l’aparició de due tintoreres prop de la platja
ud83dudc49Va passar diumenge al migdia. By detecting them, els banyistes van get out of the needle. No hi will haver ferits.
Video by Yolanda Millan
pic.twitter.com/DnIaWirrvT— Ràdio Girona – SER Catalunya (@SERGirona) https://twitter.com/SERGirona/status/1680870609197072385?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
According to Catalan media, people who were kayaking at this time made several round trips to bring bathers from the platform to the shore.
During this time, the sharks had already left the scene without causing the slightest incident except for this natural moment of panic. Gaël Rodrigues, Spain’s youngest mayor, reassured his population and holidaymakers by recalling that “Portbou beach is completely secure” and explained that “the Mediterranean blue shark is an indigenous fauna”.
Harmless
Interviewed by L’Indépendant in 2020, Nicolas Ziani, lead scientist of the Phocaean Group for the Study of Sharks, had indicated that these sharks are harmless to humans. They feed on “squid, sardines, anchovies and carrion”.
Shark species threatening humans are absent or almost absent in the Mediterranean: “The white shark is in danger of extinction and has not been seen in the Mediterranean for a century, there have been anecdotal captures of tiger shark in Spain and the bulldog shark is totally absent,” explained the specialist.
