As of: March 27, 2024, 5:15 a.m
By: Marco Blanco Ucles
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Spectacular: A gigantic basking shark was recently spotted on the Adriatic coast in Italy.
It is the first discovery of its kind in six years.
Watching sharks in an aquarium or from a safe distance on a cruise ship excites many people.
However, you don’t want to get too close to the big fish.
Ideally, sea predators should not play a role, especially on a summer beach holiday.
That's why many a German vacationer may have taken their breath away when they heard the news that an eight-meter-long basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus
)
was spotted off the Italian Adriatic coast at the beginning of March.
Trieste tourist resort in the headlines after shark sighting
Imposing appearance: A basking shark was spotted off the Italian coast.
(Symbolic image) © Nature Picture Library/IMAGO
At the gates of Trieste, and in many other places in Italy, there are tons of tourists in the summer months, many of them from Germany.
As
TriestePrima
reported, fishermen discovered a basking shark right there in early March.
Estimated weight: seven tons.
You can quickly become anxious and anxious when you think about a swimming trip to the Italian Sea.
As the WWF reports, basking sharks can grow up to twelve meters long and are the second largest fish in the world after whale sharks.
Incidentally, it was far from the only shark sighting off Italian coasts in recent years.
There was joy among locals and researchers around the world about the rare discovery.
Joy?
You read that right.
There are two reasons for this: Firstly, the basking shark is an endangered species and is under protection.
On the other hand, it is completely harmless to humans.
The marine giant's menu only includes plankton and smaller types of crustaceans.
Despite its impressive size, people don't have to be afraid of the basking shark.
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The last sighting of the basking shark in the Gulf of Trieste was over six years ago
Experts from the
Miramare Marine Reserve
and the
National Oceanographic and Geophysical Institute
expressed their excitement about the unusual discovery on Facebook: “This sighting is fantastic news for the Gulf of Trieste and its biodiversity.
It provides hope for species whose existence in the Mediterranean is increasingly threatened.”
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According to
TriestePrima
, it has been over six years since a basking shark was spotted in the Gulf of Trieste.
However, this is not only due to the dwindling population of the basking shark.
The marine giant usually prefers colder waters, which is why it is rarely spotted off the coast of Italy.