A huge shark was spotted yesterday, Wednesday 24 April, in the waters of the Strait of Messina. The specimen approached a fishing boat off the coast of Pentimele, on the northern outskirts of Reggio Calabria and this allowed the fishermen to be able to film it very closely.
The Strait of Messina is an ideal habitat for sharks
Like every year, with the intensification of recreational activities, sightings or simple reports of sharks prowling the arm of the sea that separates the continent from Sicily are multiplying along the area of the Strait of Messina. And as usual there are those who question the veracity of the sightings, asserting that “sharks do not exist in the Mediterranean” or even more so “in the Strait of Messina”.
In reality, since the dawn of time, the depths of the Strait of Messina have been inhabited by countless aquatic species of rare beauty that gather in these waters so rich in nutrients. Among these there are also various specimens of sharks, which we can consider as native species of the Strait, which represents the ideal habitat for searching for food, even for species accustomed to living at great depths.
Among these we find the blue shark or the flathead shark, better known by the scientific name of Hexanchus griseus Bonnaterre. In dialect also known by the term “pisci vacca”, as it is often identified by fishermen who live in the Strait of Messina every day, given its considerable size. The Capopiatto is the largest species of the Hexanchidae family. The main characteristic of flathead sharks is that they have a single dorsal fin.
The images of the enormous shark that grazed the coast of Reggio Calabria on April 24th
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