Excitement at Playa de Palma: An 85-year-old Italian holidaymaker is injured while swimming – shark alert triggered. Yet experts give the all-clear: the fear is unfounded. Suddenly, the alarm sounds, red flags are raised, police and rescue teams arrive. Holidaymakers at the well-known Ballermann beach in Mallorca experience a dramatic scene on Tuesday afternoon. An elderly woman emerges from the water with a heavily bleeding wound on her calf. Eyewitnesses and lifeguards immediately suspect: a shark attack. Initial indications point to a blue shark, a species not uncommon in the Mediterranean Sea. But the panic soon subsides. Because: No one has actually seen a shark. Experts increasingly rule out a shark attack. “Definitely not a shark,” says marine biologist Aniol Esteban from the Marilles Foundation, which is dedicated to the protection of the Mediterranean Sea. A sting from a stingray or the attack of another fish such as the leerfish or a triggerfish is possible. Painful jellyfish stings are also conceivable.
No Danger from Sharks in the Mediterranean
Esteban emphasises: The risk of encountering a shark while swimming is practically zero.
“There are hardly any sharks left in the Spanish Mediterranean – and the few that remain avoid the coast.” If you do encounter one, you should play the lottery instead: “The chance is significantly higher of winning the lottery than meeting a shark while diving.”
Danger from Other Marine Animals
Accidents in the sea happen time and again – for example, from jellyfish, weever fish or rays lying in the sand. Or when someone carelessly sticks a finger into a rock crevice with a moray eel. That the recent incident has unsettled some tourists is understandable. Nicole Stahl from Speyer currently only dares to dip her feet in the water. Giulliano Sanfilippo from Kempen says: “You never know what’s swimming around out there.” Esteban’s conclusion: “The real problem is that there are too few sharks – not that they could be dangerous to us.”