FISH ATTACK Beach tragedy Strange behaviour

A BRITISH tourist drowned last Friday at Cala Jondal in the Sant Josep area of Ibiza. The 33-year-old man was spotted floating in the water at around 3.15pm and lifeguards pulled him out of the water and transferred him to a nearby boat. They performed CPR manoeuvres to try to revive him before emergency teams arrived, but he was pronounced dead after 40 minutes.

The Balearics is ranked sixth worst region in Spain for fatal drownings, with a total of 15 people losing their lives between January and July.

In Spain, a total of 265 people have drowned to death this year, according to the latest figures published in the Drownings National Report.

Of these, a total of 16 have occurred during the first 10 days of August.

“Society thinks everyone knows how to swim, but this is far from true,” Isabel Garcia, President of the Spanish Federation of Lifesaving, said.

She added: “And many people have been rescued, which means that the number of drowning deaths could have been so much higher.”

CLIMATE change causing seas to warm up may be behind increasing cases of fish biting swimmers in Mallorca. Several bathers have suffered bite marks caused by sea creatures over the summer, especially in the Migjorn area of the island. Some swimmers have even been left with small bleeding wounds.

Ron Farage, Assistant Curator at Palma Aquarium, said that the biters were younger members of the Sparidae family of fish, commonly called sea breams and porgies, most of which possess grinding molar-like teeth. He added that warmer water led them to become hungrier and less timid but he reassured bathers the fish are not poisonous and are essentially harmeless.