Egypt, three fatal shark attacks in less than a year. What to do? Speak the expert
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One in almost four million. This is the probability of being attacked and killed by a shark. Yet, in a particular stretch of sea in front of the well-known resort of Hurghada in the Red Sea, three fatal attacks have been recorded in the last eleven months. The latest was on 8 June: a 23-year-old Russian boy was killed by a three-metre-long tiger shark watched by his father who watched from the shore. The alleged video of the terrible accident was released online.
The death of the young man who was swimming in the Red Sea led to two major reactions in the well-known tourist resort – which has just recovered after the difficulties first linked to the terrorist attacks, then to the pandemic and finally to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The first of shock and disbelief for a new deadly attack, classified as “unprovoked” and which took place almost a year after that July 1, 2022 in which two tourists with very similar dynamics were killed while snorkeling. The second was what first appeared as a “shark hunt” and then as a brutal revenge: initially dictated by the need to fish the animal considered dangerous for tourists, the act then turned into an outburst of anger.
The Egyptian authorities have confirmed that the shark was “captured and will be examined in the laboratory to understand the reasons for the attack”, but the video that shows the fury, with sticks and bolts on the animal’s head, made the news above all by those who caught it and then killed it. Once killed, the perpetrators of the act immortalized themselves in a photo with the shark lying lifeless on the ground. “A brutal act, an absurd excessive revenge. We still don’t understand that the world is not only ours and above all the sea is not. Unfortunately certain fatalities can and will always exist” comments the zoologist Emilio Sperone of the University of Calabria and co-founder of the Italian Shark Studies Center (CSS).
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Even before the tiger shark was captured, a 74 kilometer stretch of coastline in the area known for snorkeling and tourist activities had been closed to swimming and it seems that the animal had been sighted for hours. Meanwhile, in Egypt, they know well how this terrible episode that led to the death of the young Russian could have a strong impact on tourism and the economy of families in Hurghada.
One therefore wonders why three shark deaths occurred in less than a year while in the 25 years prior to 2022, going to see the numbers of the Global Shark Attack File, from 1997 to 2021 throughout Egypt they had occurred in total only five fatal attackstwo to Sharm El Sheikhtwo to Marsalam (the last ones in 2015 and 2018) and one in the area of Habili Gafar.
“There are no causes that can be easily identified,” explains Sperone. “We must remember that they are wild animals and these are fatal encounters in habitats where sharks move. In tropical environments these can happen even if with very little probability: species such as the tiger shark are not sedentary at all and move a lot following the prey, so sometimes they can accidentally meet the man. There is no justification for the fact that there have been three cases in two years but one can reason why they may be close to the coast”. From the search for food to climate change, many aspects can influence.
“Viviparous species, for example, approach the coast to give birth to their young, in other cases sharks move along the coast to look for prey, as happens in South Africa when hunting seals. In others, there are issues of attraction dictated by odorous sources. I don’t know how proven it is, but even in those areas it is said that in certain places they throw slaughterhouse waste into the sea, as a result the animals approach”, adds Sperone.
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Furthermore, due to climate change “le warmer waters they change the spaces in which they usually move” claims the expert. Then there is to understand for example if “the victim has done something that may have attracted the shark’s attention perhaps involuntarily. However, it remains a great fatality”.
It is also complex to compare such deaths to those caused by other species, such as the case of the JJ4 bear in Italy. “There is a lot of difference between mammals and bears. The she-bear as a mammal can be thought to learn from a dangerous situation, while the shark as a fish has a small, primitive brain and is unlikely to understand what it has done, the fish they have simpler nervous systems and could repeat the gesture.”
Also for this reason, in the Egyptian case, where moreover there is an entire economy based precisely on tourism of the sea and coral reefs, “it is not easy to understand what is right to do but, if the animal lingered in the area for some time, perhaps it was necessary to capture him: surely all that brutality in killing was not necessary, they could think of an ethical end”, concludes Sperone.
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For those who swim in waters where large predators are present, the same advice always applies: do not do it at night, do not dive if the presence of an animal has been reported or if you are injured, try to stay in a group, refrain from splashing excessive swimming and staying close to shore can all reduce risk. In the event of an attack according to the Global Shark Attack File which takes into account all known precedents, the best strategy to defend yourself – in extreme cases – is to hit the sharks on the tip of the nose or target vulnerable points such as the gills and eyes.
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