Rare encounter Hobby fisherman spots great white shark in the Mediterranean

At the beginning of November, a French amateur fisherman has an incredible encounter in the waters off the Côte d'Azur: with a great white shark.

A great white shark was spotted off the French islands of Porquerolles and Port-Cros at the beginning of November. "In the Mediterranean, it can be mistaken for a mako shark. The latter is very common. But the individual that was observed off Port-Cros is definitely a great white shark, I think it's a young specimen," says Nicolas Ziani, scientific director of the Groupe Phocéen d'Étude des Rai (GPER), when asked by "France 3".

The specimen, about four meters long, was observed by Henri Cavillon, an amateur fisherman from Toulon. "I'm the man who saw the animal," the pensioner told "Var-Matin".

"I didn't catch anything that morning. And then, at around 11 a.m., I saw this fin from afar," says Cavillon. He drove closer and switched off the engine 20 meters away from the animal. "Then it was him approaching me very slowly. It passed next to the boat, then again underneath it and after three or four passes, it moved on very calmly," the fisherman is quoted as saying in the French daily newspaper.

40 sightings in four centuries

Experts from the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN) and the Groupe Phocéen d'Etude des Requins (Phocean Shark Research Group, GPER) have now confirmed that the animal is a great white shark.

A rare event: according to the GPER, only around 40 specimens have been sighted in the Gulf of Lion since 1600. In 2022, a female great white shark almost five meters long was reported in the Camargue.

"This is great news for this species, which is classified as critically endangered and has almost disappeared from the Mediterranean," says Matthieu Lapinski, President of Ailerons. The association is committed to improving knowledge and protecting sharks and rays in the Mediterranean.