It was on our way to Greece from Italy. We left the marina Santa Maria de Leuca, which is located at the Southeast tip of the heal of the boot of Italy and we were heading towards a tiny Greek island called Othoni, Northwest of Corfu. The sea was a little bit wavy but the trip was overall quite comfortable. We could see the outline of the island of Othoni in the horizon and we were about two hours away when I see a great big dark fin in the sea on the front starboard side (right side) of the boat. This was not a dolphin for sure, dolphins have short, curved, meaty fins, very easy to recognize. I call out to Jeff to look at that and asked him what did he think that was. Jeff got the binoculars to look when suddenly, I see the fin again now very close to the boat, seemed razor thin, very tall and solid dark almost next to the boat moving in a very jerky kinda way and then I see the fish!!!! it was in length almost as long as our tender on the boat, about 3-4 meters, looked white so close to the surface of the sea, probably hunting some fish when I realized I was looking at a shark!!!! A real shark! like the one in Jaws! I couldn’t believe that there are sharks in the Mediterranean!!! All my life I lived in blissful ignorance that sharks roam our waters and enjoyed my dives and swimming in the deep, without fear…!!!
Technology was never so precious to me as it was the next few minutes when I was googling “Are there any sharks in the Mediterranean?” and hoping for a clear negative that would discredit my own eyes, convincing me that there’s some other totally harmless fish that only looks exactly like a Great White….but, this is what I got:
“Mediterranean sea is thought to be home for 47 shark species like: Angelshark, Blue shark, Great white shark, Kitefin shark, Longfin mako, Sandbar shark, Scalloped hammerhead, Great hammerhead, Shortnose spurdog, Thresher shark. The most dangerous one is the Great White, however they are seen seldomly.”
47!?!? 47 shark species!! Seldomly..! Well I guess I should feel …lucky?! We reached Othoni and anchored in a beautiful little bay, very protected spot from wind and waves and blue/ green crystal clear water, simply lovely….in other words exactly the ideal location for a deadly shark attack! The temperature was sky high and I longed to dive in the sea…but what about that Seldomly Seen Great White who made himself visible, only two hours ago? Jeff’s reassurances that sharks don’t eat Greek girls were totally ineffective. However, I am not completely unreasonable…Jeff got his mask and swam around the boat, did not see anything dangerous, and I got in the sea, but then Jeff got out of the water and didn’t watch over me for any dark fins coming my way, so I had to hurry out in a state of a panic…! It’s been now about 10 days from the Day of the Shark and I am steadily recovering. (Ed note: there have been 24 recorded shark attacks in Greek waters over the last 115 years.)
Adventures on Spruzzo 