Sharks in Greece: types, real risks and safety rules

Sharks successful Greece – not a fable and not a caller crushed for formation hysteria. They unrecorded successful Aegean, Ionian, Cretan And Libyan seas millions of years. It’s conscionable that present each vacationer has I person a phone, a camera and a strong tendency to urgently state a state of exigency connected the sea.

The crushed for updating this worldly was the quality of astir 2.5 metre shark astatine Loutra-Oreas-Elenis successful the country Corinth. According to Greek media reports, the food was spotted adjacent to the shore, causing interest among section residents and vacationers. Some publications person suggested that it could beryllium mako sharkhowever, close recognition from video ever requires caution.

According to experts, astir 36 species of sharks. In the wider Mediterranean basin there are astir 47 typessome of which tin scope ample sizes. But the important item remains the same: the beingness of sharks successful the oversea does not mean that the formation automatically turns into a country from a movie. “Jaws”. Attacks connected radical are highly uncommon successful Greece.

What sharks are recovered successful Greece

In the Greek seas there are some comparatively harmless species and ample predators that are champion not approached. Below are the main species astir often mentioned successful transportation with Greece and the Mediterranean Sea.

How to separate the main types of sharks

Great white shark – This is simply a heavy, almighty silhouette, a acheronian backmost and a airy belly. If the food looks similar an underwater armored αυτοκίνητο with a triangular fin, it is amended not to cheque its friendliness personally.

Video: Great white shark successful the Mediterranean Sea. Where is this species recovered and why has it go rare?

Mako noticeably slimmer and “sportier”: elongated body, crisp snout, acheronian bluish back. This is 1 of the fastest sharks, and that is why gathering it requires calm care, and not heroic filming for κοινωνικά networks.

Video: Mako shark: overview of the species. Appearance, speed and behaviour characteristics.

Video: Mako successful a Mediterranean context. About the latest mako populations successful the Mediterranean and the risks to this species.

Blue shark usually appears slimmer and elongated, with agelong pectoral fins. It is often recovered further offshore, but tin sometimes look successful areas where it tin beryllium seen by fishermen and vacationers.

Video: Blue shark: however to separate it from a mako. Useful video for visual identification.

Fox shark is the easiest to recognize: its agelong tail is hard to confuse with thing else. If a food has a tail that looks astir similar a abstracted tool, it’s astir apt it.

Video: Fox shark: diagnostic features. The main landmark is the very agelong precocious leaf of the tail.

Giant shark It’s scary due to the fact that of its size, but not due to the fact that of its diet. It filters plankton and does not prey connected people. That is, it looks similar a oversea monster, but eats similar a very ample vacuum cleaner. Nature besides loves irony.

Video: Basking shark/Pilgrim shark. Large, but usually harmless to humans.

Where successful Greece were sharks seen?

Map showing places where sharks person been encountered

Sharks person been recorded successful astir each Greek marine areas: successful Ionian Sea, Aegean Seay Cretein the country Saronic Gulf, Pagasitikosy Corfu, Evia, Loutraki, Chania and different areas. This does not mean that each these places are unsafe for swimming. This means that the oversea is simply a surviving environment, and not a swimming excavation with chlorine and a “no food allowed” sign.

According to Greek publications, historically astir attacks are associated with Ionian Sea And Pagasitikos. But the attacks themselves stay highly uncommon events. With millions of swimmers, fishermen, divers and tourists, the hazard of encountering a shark is highly low.

Attacks connected people: rare, but not fiction

According to aged data, for 161 years old sightings person been recorded successful Greece 14 attacks sharks connected people, of them 11 ended successful death. The aforesaid figures are repeated by caller Greek publications. The proportionality of fatalities appears high, but this is owed to the small fig of episodes and the property of some of the incidents.

• 1847, Corfu: First known recorded attack. A 19-year-old British soldier was killed.
• 1903, Crete: Two sponge diver deaths.
• 1948: A fisherman died aft being attacked by what was believed to beryllium a ample predatory shark.
• 1951, Mon Repos, Corfu: Fatal onslaught connected a young woman.
• 1956, Keratea, Attica: A 15-year-old teenager died while swimming astir 100 meters from the shore.
• 1963, Pagasitikos: Austrian writer and philologist Helga Pogl died while swimming conscionable a fewer meters from the shore.
• 1981, Pagasitikos: A tourist from Austria survived the attack, but was earnestly injured.

These stories are scary, but they span decades. In modern Greece, there is simply a overmuch higher hazard of drowning, getting heatstroke, getting tally implicit by a boat, overestimating your strength, oregon stepping connected a oversea urchin. The shark conscionable looks much awesome successful the title. The sea, unfortunately, does not consult with editors astatine each earlier becoming dangerous.

Who is astatine greater risk?

Ordinary swimmers are seldom funny successful sharks. Much much often, the hazard arises among those who themselves make the “smell of food” astir themselves oregon find themselves adjacent to prey.

• Underwater hunters: Wounded fish, humor and vibrations tin pull predators.
• Fishermen: Nets, catch, discarded food and cutting waste summation the hazard of sharks.
• Divers: particularly when diving offshore oregon adjacent feeding areas of ample fish.
• Swimmers astatine sunrise and sunset: At this time, galore marine predators are much active.
• People successful troubled waters: The shark whitethorn marque a mistake, particularly if there is sportfishing enactment nearby.

How to trim the hazard of an encounter

• Don’t swim adjacent fishing boatsnets and places where food oregon waste are thrown away.
• Don’t spell into the water with bleeding wounds.
• Avoid swimming unsocial acold from shore, particularly astatine dawn, dusk and astatine night.
• Avoid wearing shiny jewelry successful the water; reflections whitethorn lucifer food scales.
• If you spot a ample shark nearby, calmly get retired of the water. Don’t scream, deed the water, oregon unreal to beryllium a wounded sardine.
• Don’t try to swim up to a shark for photos oregon videos. The nett is already afloat of stupidity, nary request to go the waterproof version of it.
• When a shark appears, underwater hunters are amended disconnected releasing their prey and leaving the area.

What to bash if you spot a shark

Main – don’t panic. Sudden movements and splashes whitethorn pull attention. You request to calmly determination towards the enactment oregon boat, if imaginable without turning your backmost to the shark. If you are successful a group, stick together: a single fig successful the water looks simpler and much vulnerable to a predator.

If a shark approaches, bash not try to touch it, provender it, scare it, oregon thrust it into shallow water. Your task is not to decision the shark, but to get retired of the water. Believe me, this is 1 of those cases where heroism is champion near to atrocious movie writers.

After going ashore, warn rescuers, coast guardbeach medication oregon section authorities. If a shark is spotted adjacent an organized beach, radical indispensable beryllium temporarily removed from the water until the situation is clarified.

If there was an attack

During an attack, the main information is blood loss. You request to enactment rapidly earlier assistance arrives.

• Remove the victim from the water immediately.
• Call for assistance by fig 112.
• If bleeding is severe, use nonstop unit to the wound with a cleanable cloth, towel, oregon clothing.
• If bleeding from a limb is monolithic and does not stop, a tourniquet is needed supra the wound. The clip of exertion indispensable beryllium remembered and reported to doctors.
• The victim indispensable beryllium laid down, warmed and not allowed to get up.
• Do not wash a heavy wound with oversea water and bash not try to “examine it beautifully.” This is not an excursion, but a trauma.

Emergency numbers successful Greece

• 112 — a single European exigency number.
• 166 – ambulance ΕΚΑΒ.
• 199 – occurrence work and rescuers.
• 108 — seashore guard.
• 100 – police.
• 171 – tourist police.

In Greece, rescue functions are often performed by Fire service. If you don’t cognize where to call, telephone 112: The relation will way the telephone to the desired service.

• Βοήθεια! — Whoa! – Help!
• Καλέστε ασθενοφόρο! — Kaleste astenoforo! – Call an ambulance!
• Καλέστε το λιμενικό! — Kaleste to Limeniko! – Call the seashore guard!
• Υπάρχει καρχαρίας κοντά στην ακτή. — Iparhi karkharias kondastin acti. — There’s a shark disconnected the shore.
• Υπάρχει τραυματίας. — Iparhi traumatias. – There is simply a casualty.
• Έχει αιμορραγία. — Ehi emoraya. — He/she is bleeding.
• Χρειαζόμαστε γιατρό. — Chryazomaste yatro. – We request a doctor.

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