Shark Numbers On The Increase Off Cataluña

March 5, 2008

Release from: TypicallySpanish.com

The CRAM Foundation in Cataluña, for the Conservation and Recovery of Marine Animals, has noted in a recent report that shark numbers are on the increase off the coast of north eastern Spain. Up to 20 sharks and ray were recorded last year, a marked increase on previous figures, which showed only two in both 2006 and 2005, and five in 2004.

Species spotted include two sandbar sharks, a hammerhead, the bluntnose sixgill shark, otherwise known as the cow shark, and the massive but harmless basking shark, of which four were detected. Several species of ray were either seen close to the shore, caught up in nets or washed up on beaches, including four giant ray. It’s a species which, along with the hammerhead and the sandbar, are rarely seen in the area.

It’s an unexplained phenomenon which has received attention not only in the press in Cataluña, but also in the UK Daily Telegraph, but CRAM says surface water temperatures have remained more or less unchanged in the past five years, and add that there is insufficient data to establish any relationship between these events and ‘certain changes in weather patterns.’

The report’s authors point out that while it may be unusual or exceptional for some of the species to be seen in the area, they are species which are normally found in the Mediteranean.