It is a beautiful apparition in the Mediterranean. A great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) was observed and filmed by a boater off the coast of Var, according to information from France 3 Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur published on Monday, November 18. “The individual observed off the coast of Port-Cros is in fact a great white shark. “I think he’s young, not youthful, but he’s not an adult yet.”according to Nicolas Ziani, scientific director of the Phocean Shark Study Group (GPER), quoted by the television channel.
The alert was given four days earlier on Facebook by Matt Lapinski, a biologist and member of the Elasmobranch Citizen Participatory Observatory. [requins et raies] from the French Mediterranean (Elasmed).
“At the beginning of November, our friends and partners from the Apecs association [Association pour l’étude et la conservation des sélaciens] “We received an observation of a large shark measuring between 3.5 and 4.5 meters crossing the surface off the coast of Var,” he wrote, with supporting photographs.
“Threat of extinction”
According to Lapinski, the analysis of the observer’s data, transmitted to the National Museum of Natural History, made it possible to identify the species to which the animal belongs. “Great news for this species, classified as critically endangered and almost disappeared from our French coasts, and even from the Mediterranean, due to very different levels of protection depending on the country,” he specified, adding that, since this first appearance at the beginning of November, “The individual was not observed again.”
The great white shark is classified as “critically endangered” on the European red list of threatened species, and classified as “vulnerable” on a global scale, according to the National Inventory of Natural Heritage.
