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Date Published: 15/07/2022

ARCHIVED - Five Spanish beaches closed after three sharks are spotted lurking close to the coast

ARCHIVED ARTICLE

Red flags were raised at playas in Sitges and Vilanova i la Geltrú, Catalonia, and bathers ordered to get out of the water

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Five Spanish beaches closed after three sharks are spotted lurking close to the coast

In scenes sure to send a cold chill through any hardened beach lover, bathers at five popular beaches in Barcelona were ordered out of the water and red flags were raised after a shortfin mako shark and two blue sharks were spotted lurking less than 100 metres in separate incidents.

In Sitges, the sandy stretches of La Fragata, La Ribera, La Bassa Rodona and Estanyol in the tourist town of Garraf were closed when the beach rescue service (Proactiva) noticed what was later confirmed as a shortfin shark.

Guillem Escolà, Sitges City Council's councillor for beaches, explained that "all bathers were removed from the water in an orderly fashion, without any problems".

Staff from the Club Nàutic de Sitges received the first warning of the shark's presence at 12.50 pm on Thursday July 14 and immediately set about following the animal in a boat.

Also read: Second shark scare in a week in Ibiza

Initially it was spotted on La Fragata beach, and later on La Ribera and Bassa Rodona sands before club staff lost track of it. Footage has since been shared on social media by the Cetàcea Association.

Once confident the shark had left the area, the red flag was lowered and the yellow flag raised, allowing bathing, albeit with caution, as a precautionary measure.

Municipal sources assured that "this shark is not considered aggressive, and added that there is no record of attacks on humans by this species, which is considered one of the fastest in the world".

Shortfin mako sharks, uncommon in this part of the Mediterranean Sea and considered endangered, can reach speeds of up to 70km/h and can measure between 3.5 and 4 metres in length. They feed mainly on deep-sea fish and take up to 18 years to reach reproductive age.

Meanwhile in Vilanova, Sant Gervasi beach was closed early Thursday morning after two blue sharks were sighted. The closure lasted just hours and the beach was reopened to bathers shortly before 10am after the lifeguard service carried out surveillance with jets skis and concluded the sharks had moved on.

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Image: Cetàcea Association

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