The vision of a group of swimmers running, frightened by the disturbing proximity of a shark fin that seemed to be heading towards them on a beach in Orihuela, has reached the mobile devices and computers of citizens around the world this week. they wonder if the peaceful Costa Blanca is as peaceful as it presumes.
And it is, of course, because except for an occasional inconsequential bite from a blue shark similar to the one that achieved fame the other day shortly before it died, like the one that a few years ago forced the closure of the Arenales del Sol beach for a few hours , there are no relevant incidents in the records that have affected bathers, who number in the thousands, millions, on our coasts.
Every year, on the beaches of Alicante, there are victims, but drowning, heat or the delicate health of those affected are behind it; the fear of the shark is nothing more than an atavistic fear that a certain cinematographic success revived in generations that had never seen one.
And that sharks, there are, there are; and of various species. But less than before. According to scientific data exposed this week by the University of Alicante, at least 50% of Mediterranean rays and 54% of sharks are at high risk of extinction due to continuous overfishing for years and accidental captures associated with different types of fishing gear.
“The consequences of the disappearance of sharks and rays from our waters can offer an unpredictable scenario, due to the important role they play in the ecosystem,” explains Francisca Giménez Casalduero, professor of Zoology and director of the Santa Pola Marine Research Center.
You have to go back many years in time to find testimonies in which large specimens have come to light. The most spectacular capture of which we have reference in the newspaper archives occurred in August 1946, when a huge lamia, or white shark, entered the almadraba that then existed on the island of Tabarca in search of tuna, one of its favorite foods. . Here we reproduce the chronicle of the “sea monster” that La Vanguardia published the following day.
As can be seen in the photo that heads this article, the chronicler was not exaggerating; the old people of the place did not remember having seen anything similar “for twenty years”. Forty men were needed to disembark a 1,790-kilo shark, which contained a forty-weight tuna inside. One hundred liters of oil was obtained from the liver of such a bug.
The testimonies of that time spoke of similar cases back in the twenties of the last century, when the fishermen of the island were faced with some other huge specimen of white shark, more frequent then because in the fertile waters of Tabarca there were still colonies of seals. monk, one of his favorite delicacies.
Since those times, the mentality and circumstances have changed radically. Tabarca is today a marine reserve, fishing is strictly prohibited. But the Mediterranean as a whole has seen the marine fauna diminish due to the pressure of industrial fishing in increasingly polluted waters.
In this context, scientists advocate investing in the conservation of vital species for the ecosystem: “Rays have a decisive influence on maintaining the structural diversity of the seabed, sharks are super predators, located at the top of the pyramid The areas studied have proven to be a hot spot for diversity of elasmobranchs and key areas for species such as the lantern shark, the black shark or the guitar shark”, explains the UA researcher.
An international committee of experts from the International Union for Conservation of Nature has considered two areas of the southern coast of Alicante and the Murcia Region suitable for the conservation of sharks and rays.
The first Guide to Sharks and Rays in the Region of Murcia, prepared by the University of Alicante, Ecologistas en Acción and the IEO-CSIC, has recently been published. The guide includes those elasmobranch species documented in coastal marine environments and identifies the 31 most common shark and ray species, many of which are considered threatened or endangered.
