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Shark scare at the beach
BEACHGOERS in Orihuela had a scare on Thursday morning, June 15, when a shark was spotted swimming in the shal low waters near Aguamarina Beach in Alicante Province.
The incident occurred in the Dehesa De Campoamor Cove at around 10am where the creature was observed by a life guard and also by several bathers who were in the water.
Obviously alarmed at seeing such a sight near them in the water, the bathers quickly darted for the safety of the beach.
Orihuela Local Police officers were immediately deployed to the beach where they proceeded to evacuate the area. What is believed to have been a blue shark decided not to hang around and was reportedly swimming back out to sea after just a few minutes.
A tweet from MeteOrihuela, the local meteorological site, accompanied by video footage of the incident, read: ‘Attention! This morning (15/06/2023), a twometrelong blue shark has almost approached the shore of the Beaches of #Orihuela ( #Alicante ), specifically in the Aguamarina Cove of #DehesaDeCampoamor. Video: @inf_vegabaja’.
According to the Twitter profile of the Local Police, everything was ‘calm’ by 11.25am at the beach with the green flag displayed. Once the shark was confirmed as having left the area, the bathers could return to the water.
Blue sharks are not uncommon along the Spanish coast. They are characterised by their elongated body with a long, conical snout.
Almost one year ago, a simi lar event occurred near Arenal Beach in Tarragona province where two sharks were spotted in the water on June 26. Located in the municipality of L’Hospitalet de l’Infant, the beach was evacuated until the creatures were confirmed to have disappeared.
Historically, blue sharks also known as great blue sharkshave rarely been known to bite humans. According to sharksinfo.com, in the last 400 years, the blue shark was implicated in only 13 biting incidents. Blue Sharks are pelagic, meaning that they prefer the open ocean to the coastlines.
