Agustí Torres tries to convince us that, if you fall into the water and a shark is around, the most normal thing "is for him to get close to you" , but he will not intend to hit you with a bite, but simply out of "curiosity". He also adds that half of the sharks that cross the waters of the western Mediterranean are injured. The head of the NGO Shark Med has spent two years recording specimens with hooks nailed, jaws dislocated, and fishing lines and fishing nets.
Seeing a shark in the Mediterranean is also very difficult. They take a long time to become adults, they usually swim very far from the coast and mate very little. 98% of the almost hundred species that survive in our waters have become extinct . Mostly victims of overfishing and accidental catches.
The Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) added 17 shark species last year due to extinction risk. One of them is the blue shark, or blue shark, the most abundant in our Mediterranean, and harmless to man, despite its two and a half meters on average, and its jaw with triangular teeth with serrated edges . However, Shark Med regrets that our legislation has not included them among the protected species, since their survival is "seriously compromised".
Surface longline, a fishing art that consists of arranging thousands of hooks in a line that can reach 150 kilometers, is the main cause of its disappearance. Its capture is usually accidental, although there is a market for its commercialization. In fact, Spain is the leader in import and export of blue shark meat in the European Union .
Shark Med is designing an innovative remote underwater video system that allows its observation in its natural habitat. Some of which very few studies exist, since most have been done in markets. In addition, from what they have verified, the shark that passes in front of a camera is hardly seen again from the same place.
The NGO has just signed a collaboration agreement of one year and 30,000 euros with the Marilles Foundation, "to raise awareness, with scientific data, about the importance of the recovery and conservation of the sharks," says Agustí Torres , president of Shark Med.
For Aniol Esteban , director of the Marilles Foundation, dedicated to financing projects to improve the Balearic Sea, " a sea with sharks is a sea in a good state of conservation ". He assures that "the only fear that you have to have to sharks is their extinction", since being at the top of the food chain, they are essential to maintain the balance of the ecosystem, and ensure the survival of other animals.
Esteban believes that the perception of sharks, carved especially in the cinema, is changing. And he gives as an example the blue shark that a couple of days ago was stranded in Benalmádena and the bathers returned it to the sea: " A few years ago they would have killed it out of fear ."
In addition to blue shark, there are a few hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna spp), shortfin mako sharks (Isurus oxyrhinchus), porbeagle sharks (Lamna nasus) and foxes (Alopias vulpinus), but between 96% and 99% of the populations that existed until the first half of the 20th century they have disappeared.
According to the Red Book of the fish of the Balearic Islands, of the 56 registered species of sellaceae, 34 are threatened and 17 are critically endangered or have already become extinct at the regional level. Still, the Balearic Islands constitutes an area rich in sharks and rays compared to other areas of the western Mediterranean.
Shark Med and the Marilles Foundation demand restrictions from the central administration on where, when and how the fleet can fish based on the presence of sharks. Also that measures be taken to reduce mortality when they are accidentally fished, such as removing hooks, or working with low impact ones, which rust, in addition to returning them to the sea without hooks or cables.
The Balearic Government is demanding that the islands be declared a zone of "no consumption of sharks". Blue shark meat and shortfin mako are often found in the frozen food department of large stores, and on the menu of many restaurants under the name of "caella". Aniol Esteban says that "you have to become aware that eating shark meat is like eating tiger or elephant meat."
They also ask that the waters of the Balearic Sea be declared free of surface longlines, as has already been achieved with oil and gas prospecting.
They also propose replicating initiatives such as those in tourist destinations such as the Maldives or the Caribbean, where the presence of sharks is an important attraction for the local economy . In the Canary Islands there is a diving tourism related to these species that attracts, according to a study by Pew Research, a minimum of three million euros in profit, and generates almost one hundred jobs.
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