TOURISTS have been banned from swimming in the sea after a huge shark was seen lurking near the shore at a busy holiday hotspot.
Concerned coastguards called the emergency services and raised a red warning flag after the fin of the seven foot beast was spotted poking out of the water.
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The alarm was raised around 3.30 PM yesterday at bustling Menorcan beach, Arenal d’en Castell.
It is the same place another shark was seen in June 2018 when swimmers were stopped from entering the water for an entire afternoon.
Although the swimming ban is now thought to have been lifted, the local council covering the area has not yet made any official comment on social platforms.
The shark was most likely a blue shark or tinterora and the sighting is believed to be the first so far this year near a Costa beach.
Blue sharks are among the most common in Spain.
According to Florida Museum of Natural History the blue shark is “relatively unaggressive” but is very curious and will approach divers and spearfishers, especially if food is available.
The International Shark Attack File says the species is responsible for thirteen unprovoked shark bites worldwide.
Tinterora’s have been blamed for a number of beach closures dampening the spirts of many sunseekers hoping to enjoy the warm Mediterranean water.
Although they rarely bite humans they have been implicated in several biting incidents, four of which are said to have ended fatally.
A blue shark was blamed for an attack on a holidaymaker in Elche near Alicante in July 2016.
The 40-year-old victim was rushed to hospital and given stitches to a wound in his hand.
First aiders described the bite as “large” and said he had come out of the sea with blood streaming from the injury.
In June last year a fully grown blue shark measuring some seven feet caused panic off the Costa Blanca beach of Aguamarina in Orihuela Costa south of Alicante.
Bathers were filmed trying to run to safety through waist-high water as it neared the shoreline.
Lifeguards blew on their whistles to warn locals and holidaymakers about the big fish and urge them to get out of the sea as quickly as possible.
One woman, thought to have been an elderly person seen being helped out of the water by Good Samaritans, is said to have suffered a panic attack after realising the shark was beside her.
It washed up dead the following day by rocks at La Caleta Beach in Cabo Roig a couple of miles away.
The same day it emerged the same species of shark had been spotted inside Ciutadella Port in Menorca.
When another blue shark was spotted off the same beach five years ago, a tourist could be overheard saying as it appeared in the surf: “It’s coming. Oh my God, I think it’s dead.”
A woman, believed to be a relative, replied “No, it’s not dead” as other tourists started screaming in the background before she added: “Every time we go to the beach something happens.”
Blue shark Facts
- They are Spain’s most common species of shark
- They can grow up to 12.5 feet long
- They can live in both temperature and tropical waters
- They can live both at the surface of the water down to depths of 3,280 feet
- Their diet consists mainly of small bony fish and cephalopods like sardines, squid and octopus.
- Blue sharks are also known as Prionace glauca
- They have a white underbelly and dark blue back which helps them camouflage as they swim in the open ocean
- Female Blue sharks have thicker skin as males initiate mating by biting a female between her dorsal fins
- Female sharks give birth to live pups that are each around 15 inches long, with litter sizes averaging at 25-50 pups
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