Great white shark -- still found in the Adriatic Sea
04/11/2008
Considered extinct about 40 years ago, the great white shark is back in the Adriatic waters, dangerous as ever, having attacked a diver from Slovenia.
By Ivo Scepanovic for Southeast European Times in Split – 04/11/08
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''The shark was probably following the schools of tuna and got attracted by the fish around the diver's belt. As schools of tuna are not frequent in the Adriatic anymore, the great white shark rarely travels to these waters." [Getty Images]
One man's frightening encounter with the great white shark in the Adriatic, just ten metres off the shore of the remote island of Vis, central Dalmatia, has made headlines in Croatia and confirmed suspicions of the predator's presence in the Adriatic. Older locals remember a shark attack in the central Adriatic that claimed the life of a German tourist. Divers had felt safe after 40 years of shark inactivity.
A 43-year-old Slovenian diver, Damjan Pesek, went spear fishing with a friend in Mala Smokova, near the island of Vis. Witnesses say the shark that attacked him was 5m long.
"It felt like something suddenly hit my body. You actually do not feel the bite," said Pesek at the hospital in Split that treated the serious injuries to his left leg.
"I used a spear to fight back," said Pesek. Friends pulled him into a boat and rushed him to the nearest doctor. Paramedics in turn transported him to Split for decompression and emergency treatment.
"There is almost no way that a diver can defend himself if a shark wants to kill him," Croatia's top shark expert, Dr. Alen Soldo, says. At first, the researchers were not sure of the species that attacked Pesek.
"Other kinds of sharks may have been attracted to the diver as he was carrying [bloody] fish around his belt," Soldo thought at first. However, doctors found two teeth typical of the great white shark in the diver's leg.
The expert thinks that the arrival of the great white shark in the Adriatic could be directly connected to the tuna population.
''The shark was probably following the schools of tuna and got attracted by the fish around the diver's belt. As schools of tuna are not frequent in the Adriatic anymore, the great white shark rarely travels to these waters," explained Soldo.
Despite the nearly tragic circumstances, Soldo said he was glad to hear the great white shark found its way back to the Adriatic, as experts had assumed it extinct in those waters for the past four decades. He added that humans are still the intruders when they venture into the underwater world.
Experts think the great white shark will move on quickly from the Adriatic, given its migratory nature.
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