Sharks invade Algarve coastal waters

Fishermen and tourists have been reporting sightings of sharks along the coastline to the area’s maritime authority.

“But we’re not going to intervene,” Captain of the Ports Authority of Portimão and Lagos, Cruz Martins, explains.

“We’ve already taken advice from biologists from Zoomarine and the University of the Algarve, who guarantee that these are inoffensive sharks”. Shark specialist João Pedro Correia has also confirmed that “hammerheads shouldn’t worry anyone”.

They are nervous creatures that flee at the slightest sense of human presence.

“They don’t even have teeth for tearing, just teeth for grinding small fish”.

But the biologist agrees that it is hard to understand why they have come so close to the coast.

They normally keep at least five kilometres out to sea. According to biologist Élio Vicente, the phenomenon has to do with “a combination of factors”, like the “warm waters, the currents and the existence of food”.

João Pedro Correia stressed also that a number of shark varieties run the risk of extinction, and that there hasn’t been a case of a hammerhead shark attacking a human in living memory.

“Most of what is said about sharks are myths created by a film made in 1976 which is now completely out of date”, he concluded.