Offshore, about 10 kilometres from the port of Fisterra (A Coruña), dawn breaks between a light mist and a sky of grey clouds. The swell encourages a gentle rocking on the deck of the ship. M/Va fishing boat of almost 40 metres in length converted into a marine biology laboratory. Part of the crew prepares the operation: bait, fish stock, tackle and buoys placed around the boat. An ingenious magnet to attract the white shark. Effective traps to catch it at the first opportunity.
While the fishermen are putting the finishing touches on their lure, Spanish and American researchers are preparing for the big moment. If the animal appears and they manage to get it on board using an ad hoc platform, they will have barely a quarter of an hour. That is not enough time to mark it with a geolocator, take samples and take measurements before returning it to the water. It would be a real milestone, the first time that a “white” animal is captured —that is how everyone refers to it in the M/V the shark—swimming across the Northeast Atlantic. “Many people think it’s impossible, but nothing is impossible if you have enough tenacity and refuse to give up,” says Chris Fischer, founder of Ocearch, the NGO that finances the expedition, in an epic tone.
Fischer speaks with the gravity of an old sailor. Instead of rough clothing, he wears synthetic fabrics. Instead of smoking a pipe, he vapes. But the spirit remains. At the beginning of this century he achieved fame in the US starring in big game fishing series for ESPN and National Geographic. In 2007, a researcher friend alerted him to the drastic decline in white shark populations. “He told me that, without them, the balance of the oceans would be seriously threatened,” he says. Fischer began to think about a self-imposed obligation: the imperative to contribute to preserving the king of the seas. He created Ocearch, which has promoted successful campaigns in the US, South Africa and Australia. Halfway between a philanthropist who goes down to the mud and a Joseph Conrad character, Fischer openly exposes the dark side of his mission. “All this,” he confesses while tracing vague figures in the air with his finger, “has cost me a divorce and my last dollar.”
For your current project —Save the Med (in Spanish, save the Mediterranean)— Ocearch has assembled a multidisciplinary team with scientists from Spain, France and Ireland. They want to analyze reproductive cycles, migratory routes, health, diet… Over the next two years, more than 30 studies will be published. The first stage started at the end of July and will last for eight weeks. M/V will sail around the Bay of Biscay before continuing on to the British Isles. The second phase, field work in the Mediterranean, will begin in March next year.
The objective of the campaign is to keep the Mediterranean whitefish away from the danger of extinction. To increase its presence. To guarantee its continuity in relative abundance. Why then does it cross the Mediterranean? M/V the cold Galician waters? The answer lies in two hypotheses that the expedition has set out to investigate. The first, explains Pablo García-Salinas, researcher at the Oceanographic Foundationbased in Valencia, postulates that “females in the Atlantic could be using the Mediterranean as a kind of nursery: they would go there to give birth and, when the pups grew up, they would leave through the Strait of Gibraltar.” Some species of large marine animals, García-Salinas points out, choose bays and other protected areas, with fewer predators, for the pups to spend their first months or years of life. In addition, this researcher continues, captures and sightings of white sharks in the Mediterranean usually have, especially in recent years, a common denominator: they are juvenile specimens.
The second hypothesis, which would link the populations of white sharks in the Mediterranean and the Northeast Atlantic, is based on more prosaic reasons, with less narrative charm. “It is possible that a subgroup leaves the Mediterranean in search of prey, perhaps following the migration of tuna,” says Harley Newton, head of research at Ocearch, who emphasizes the peculiarity of the Mediterranean white shark: “It is the only one that lives in an enclosed sea; the rest live in the open ocean.” In a phenomenon that has been very little studied, there is a lack of information. “It is certain that there are white sharks on the Spanish, Portuguese and French Atlantic coasts, we have plenty of documentary evidence,” adds Newton. And, of course, in the Mediterranean. García-Salinas recalls that “in the 1970s a female of almost six meters was captured, among the largest ever seen,” near Cap Farrutx, in Mallorca. More recently, in 2018, the recording of a large shark near La Cabrera, also in the Balearic Islands, confused experts. Some thought they saw a white shark. Others, a shortfin mako shark.
Despite the challenge of calculating marine species, fishing and sighting trends suggest a growing scarcity of Carcharodon carcharias (its scientific name) in Mediterranean waters. García-Salinas and Newton agree that white shark populations are succumbing to fishing pressure. On their food (other smaller species) and on themselves. Also embarked on the M/Va former British marine who chooses to remain anonymous, says that he has been working for months on a documentary in which he wants to denounce the lack of regulation (or the authorities turning a blind eye) in North Africa, which still constitutes a certain refuge to the overexploitation of other areas. He shows photographs taken by himself of small whites offered in fish markets in a Maghreb country that he asks not to specify. “We are stretching the rope towards its possible extinction,” he laments. On a global level, the red list The International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies the white shark as a vulnerable species.
Ocearch hopes to use its experience in other regions to help prevent catastrophe. Newton points out that his organization has helped to recover the white population on the east coast of the United States. “We mapped their habitat some time ago,” he said. migratory route and we identified their nursery area.” The research concluded that the first extends to Canada in summer and towards the Gulf of Mexico in winter. In turn, it delimited, for the second, a bay near New York. Very valuable information that has helped to fine-tune conservation measures. And to make lobby to pass stricter laws. Can they convince North African states to stop their fleets from fishing for whites? “It will be quite a challenge,” Newton admits.
The hours pass aboard the M/V And the longed-for moment never comes. Whales are seen in the distance. A few dolphins appear. Suddenly, several researchers gather around the stern. A slender figure, with a deep blue torso and about two metres in length, appears, hides and reappears again, using the keel as a hiding place. A voice says that it is a blue shark, one of the more than five hundred species of sharks catalogued. The animal plays around for a few minutes and continues on its way.
“One target, just one target in these eight weeks, is all we need,” Fischer stresses, looking at the horizon. The capture would open the doors to its geolocation in real time. The genetic sample obtained would allow its degree of kinship to be compared with that of other specimens captured during the campaign. And, if it were to cross the Strait of Gibraltar at some point, the theory of an Atlantic-Mediterranean connection would be strengthened. Future captures would also be made easier. “The first one will lead us to the rest,” asserts the founder of Ocearch.
Fischer goes beyond scientific achievements and appeals to the symbolic power of that inaugural capture. “People could know where the shark is at all times.” [en la web de Ocearch, se puede consultar la ubicación exacta de sus más de 200 marcados]. It would create excitement and this would contribute greatly to the debate. It is our way of giving a voice to the animal.”
Destigmatizing the world’s most feared fish is another priority for the crew of the M/V. Its powerful teeth have fueled excessive fears, some inspired by hyperbolic fictions. García-Salinas insists on the abyss between its image as a bloodthirsty predator and a much less sensational reality. The facts describe a creature with an imposing appearance, but hardly interested in humans, whom it does not consider food worthy of its palate. “Attacks on people, very rare, are usually attempted bites,” he clarifies. According to a archive According to a study by the Florida Museum of Natural Sciences, white sharks killed four people worldwide in 2023. Their role in ocean diversity seems much more noteworthy. “They are at the top of the food chain. By protecting them, the rest are protected. As with bears or tigers, it would be unthinkable for them to disappear,” García-Salinas concludes.
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