Shark Sightings in Malta in 2014

Unusually, a couple of sharks have been spotted off Maltese waters this summer, although one of them was a slightly suspicious sighting...

Not much doubt about this one, seen by Maltese fishermen about 8KM off the coast of Gozo in early June:

  From my extensive research on the subject, it appears that blue sharks are relatively common in the shark world.  Also, there are no known cases of them ever having attacked a human, so you'll be alright unless you bump into one in a really bad mood.  

But then, you probably weren't planning on going for an eight kilometre swim, so I wouldn't worry about them.

Malta Dangers of the Deep: Sharks!

I wouldn't worry too much about these guys.  Now that's not to say that there are no sharks in these parts - quite the contrary - because in Maltese waters you can find a great variety of sharks, ranging from little guys that wouldn't pose much of a threat to a goldfish right up to Great Whites.  These are the sharks that 'Jaws' was based on.   Not to make you nervous or anything, but one of the largest Great White sharks on record was caught in these waters by a Maltese fisherman in 1987.  Now fishermen being what they are, the exact measurements of said beast are unclear, variously reported to have been between 5.5 metres and over 8 metres in length.  It's certainly pretty big, as you can see from the photos on this website (I've reproduced one of these photos below), although they are not clear enough to allow an accurate measurement of the creature.  In the unlikely event of my catching one of the biggest sharks known to mankind, I would like to think that I will have the foresight to take at least one photograph which includes the full length of the fish - preferably next to some type of measuring device.