Shark attack, or just a fishy tale?

On Saturday, David Bonavia, 35 of Valletta, had to be rescued by a tourist vessel after a claimed encounter with a three-metre shark around a mile to the north of Valletta.

Bonavia insists that the large fish, believed to be a shark, circled his surfboard for 45 minutes, and then took a bite out of his sail before disappearing from view. But could it be that he was mistaken?

Bonavia’s version of events has since been called into question by shark expert Alex Buttigieg, also known as “Sharkman”.

Buttigieg claims that the attack was unlikely to have been carried out by a shark, due to the excessive amount of time it supposedly circled the surfboard.

Furthermore, the damage done to the sail did not look like it was caused by a shark.

Buttigieg explained that sharks generally do not attack humans, and most shark attacks on humans are normally a case of mistaken identity.

Often, a shark will mistake a surfer – a generally oval object with flapping arms and legs – for either a seal or turtle: both animals which are preyed upon by sharks. On taking a bite the shark usually abandons the kill, as human flesh does not contain enough fat to support the muscular structure of the predator.

Diver and underwater enthusiast Shawn Arrigo told MaltaToday that it is unusual for sharks to be in these waters at this time of year.

“Sharks tend to be accustomed to colder waters and will only occupy the warmer seas if food supply is plentiful.

“Though sharks may be attracted to the tuna farms, the Maltese waters do not offer a large enough food supply to attract these predators.”

Arrigo also adds that in his 30 years as an active scuba diver in Malta, he has only seen one shark.

However both Buttigieg and Arrigo were unable to exclude the possibility that the fish described by Bonavia was indeed a shark.

Jaws in the Med

Whether or not Bonavia’s experience was genuine, there can be no doubt that sharks have struck in the central Mediterranean before last weekend.

According to the Globetrotter’s dive guide to Malta and Gozo, the deep-water trench between Malta and Sicily is said to contain the world’s second largest shark population, though both sightings and attacks on humans are rare.

The last fatality in this region took place off the island of Elba in 1989 – when a great white shark, nicknamed ‘Willie’ in the Italian press, attacked and killed a 47-year-old scuba diver.

Luciano Costanzo went out spearfishing with his 19-year-old son and a friend one mile off the coast, near the island of Elba. From a depth of about 75 feet, Costanzo suddenly resurfaced, screaming "Shark!". He lunged for the boat but was jerked back below before he could reach it.

Eyewitnesses, including the victim’s son, reported that the shark then leapt out of the water twice, its jaws clamped around Costanzo's waist, before vanishing beneath the waves.

The shark was reportedly anywhere between 20 and 25 feet in length.

Almost 10 years later, in 1998, a thirty-mile stretch of beach along the Italian coast was closed for bathing after a 20ft great white shark attacked a cabin cruiser 12 miles off shore.

The shark was captured on video by Stefano Catalani, an amateur fisherman, when it attacked his boat off the resort of Senigallia. As a result, authorities banned swimming along much of the coast of the Marches region, from Marotta, 30 miles south of Rimini, to Civitanova, south of Ancona.

In Malta, only one shark attack is known to have taken place. Jack Smedley’s death on 20 July 1956 is widely accepted to have been caused by a rare shark attack in the picturesque St Thomas’ Bay.

Smedley, who was a retired British navy officer, went swimming with his Maltese student Tony Grech, when he was attacked and pulled underwater by what Grech identified as a shark.

Grech later reported the sensation of feeling what he described as ‘something like a donkey’s back’ brushing past him in the water. As for Smedley, he disappeared in a pool of blood, and his body was never recovered.

Although his death was generally attributed to a shark attack – most likely a great white pursuing tuna, in what was at the time the site of an active tonnara (tuna fishery) - there are other, more imaginative conspiracy theories to account for Smedley’s disappearance.

An account by a certain Charles Mizzi, on the di-ve.com website, suggests that Smedley may have been an undercover secret agent, and that his death may have been the work by Russian ‘underwater’ assassins.

The last recorded catch of a great white shark was on 17 April 1987, when local fisherman Alfredo Cutajar caught a female said to be 7.13 metres long: making it the largest recorded fish ever landed locally, and only the second largest in the Mediterranean. The contents of her stomach are said to have included a two-metre dolphin, a two-metre blue shark and a turtle.

This was the second time Cutajar landed a great white: a fact which earned him the nickname ‘Son of God’.

Monday’s sighting of a shark within a mile of Valletta is no cause for alarm as it was nowhere near bathers areas where people are likely to be swimming. However, bathers are encouraged to take all necessary precautions.

Although AFM patrols are ongoing, it is debatable what they might do if they encounter the fish.

Along with the basking shark and the manta (devil) ray, the great white shark has been a protected species in Malta since 1999.

These sharks are listed on the IUCN red list of endangered species, being hunted for their fins used in oriental shark fin soup. Landing of these fish is illegal.