Table Of ContentMediterranean Great White Sharks
Mediterranean
Great White Sharks
A Comprehensive Study
Including All Recorded Sightings
ALESSANDRO DE MADDALENA and
WALTER HEIM
Foreword by MARIE LEVINE
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
ALSO OF INTEREST
Great White Sharks in United States Museums
(by Alessandro De Maddalena and Walter Heim; McFarland 2009)
All drawings © 2012 Alessandro De Maddalena
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA
De Maddalena, Alessandro, 1970–
Mediterranean great white sharks : a comprehensive study
including all recorded sightings / Alessandro De Maddalena
and Walter Heim ; foreword by Marie Levine.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7864-5889-9
softcover : acid free paper
1. White shark—Mediterranean Sea—Case studies.
I. Heim, Walter (Walter D.) II. Title.
QL638.95.L3D4137 2012 597.3'3091638—dc23 2011053201
British Library cataloguing data are available
© 2012 Alessandro De Maddalena and Walter Heim. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, i ncluding photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without p ermission in writing from the p ublisher.
Manufactured in the United States of America
On the cover a young female white shark caught on April, 20, 2006,
off Aras Dizra, Tunisia (photograph by Samuel P. Iglésias / Muséum National
d’Histoire Naturelle de Paris); background images © 2012 Shutterstock
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 6¡¡, Je›erson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
To my wonderful wife, Alessandra, and my sweet son,
Antonio, with deep love.—Alessandro
To my daughters, Rachel and Jessica, who as young girls spent
many days chasing sharks with their dad.—Walter
Contents
Acknowledgments v
Foreword by Marie Levine 1
Preface 3
1—The Great White Shark 5
2—Records of Great White Sharks from the Mediterranean Sea 16
Spain 16 Albania 86
Continental Spain 16 Greece 86
Islas Baleares 18 Turkey 88
France 22 Syria 92
Continental France 22 Cyprus 92
Corsica 31 Lebanon 92
Monaco 32 Israel 92
Italy 32 Egypt 92
Ligurian Coast 33 Libya 93
Sardinia 38 Malta 94
Tyrrhenian Coast 42 Tunisia 99
Sicily 54 Algeria 105
Ionian Coast 67 Morocco 106
Adriatic Coast 68 Unknown Locations 106
Slovenia 77 Adriatic Sea 106
Croatia 78 Mediterranean Sea 107
Bosnia and Herzegovina 86 Specimens Without a Capture
Montenegro 86 Location 107
3—Summary Tables 113
4—Analysis of the Presence of Great White
Sharks in the Mediterranean Sea 175
Common Names Used in the Reproduction 179
Mediterranean Area 175 Distribution 182
Similar Species Present in the Identification 184
Study Area 175 Habitat, Movements and Seasonality 185
Maximum Size 176 Diet 188
Average Size 179 Predatory Tactics 192
Color 179 Scavenging 194
vii
Contents
Predators and Parasites 196 Abundance 214
Mutualism 198 Conservation 216
Attacks on Humans 198 White Shark Materials Preserved in
Fisheries 203 Museums 217
Interactions with Tuna Photographic and Filmed
Farming 208 Documentation 218
Utilization 211 Reporting Specimens of Great White
Strandings 213 Sharks from the Mediterranean Sea 220
Appendix: Mediterranean Great White Shark Report Form 223
Bibliography 225
Index 237
viii
Acknowledgments
We must pay special homage to Beverly Heim (San Diego, California) who took the time to
read and edit the entire manuscript. Many thanks to respected colleague, shark expert, and dear
friend Marie Levine for taking her precious time to read the manuscript and write the foreword.
We thank the following people, as well as the institutions where they work, for freely shar-
ing their observations and for their assistance in assembling material for this book: Daniel A bed-
Navandi (Haus des Meeres, Aqua Terra Zoo, Wien, Austria), Peter Adamik (Vlastiv˘edné muzeum
v Olomouci, Olomouc, Czech Republic), Luigi Alberot anza (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche,
Istituto per lo Studio delle Dinamica delle Grandi Masse, Venezia, Italy), Nicola Allegri (Italy),
Luca Altichieri (Museo di Geologia e Paleontologia, Università di Padova, Padova, Italy), Gérard
Altman (Association Nationale de Moniteur de Plongée, Antibes, France), Alain Alziari (Bataillon
de M arins-P ompiers de Marseille, Marseille, France), Scot Anderson (Inverness, California, USA),
Riccardo Andreoli (Venezia, Italy), Ivano Ansaloni (Museo di Storia Naturale e della Strumen-
tazione Scientifica, Modena, Italy), Jean Attard (Apnéa, Toulouse, France), Nathaniel Attard
(In-N azzjon, Media Link Communications, Malta), Gerhard Aubrecht (Biologiezentrum, Obero-
esterreichische Landesmuseen, Linz/Dornach, Austria), Vittorio Ballerini (Cetaria Diving Center,
Scopello, Italy), Emilio Balletto (Dipartimento di Biologia Animale e dell’Uomo, Università degli
studi di Torino, Torino, Italy), Enrico Banfi (Museo Civico di Storia Naturale, Milano, Italy),
Manolis Bardanis (Naxos Diving, Apeiranthos—Naxos, Greece), Alessandro Barlettani (Italy),
Joan Barrull (Museu de Zoologia, Barcelona, Spain), Àlex Bartolí (CRAM—Fundació per a la Con-
servació i Recuperació d’Animals Marins, Premiá de Mar, Spain), Peter Bartsch (Museum für
Naturkunde, H umboldt-U niversitaet zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany), Emilio Balletto (Dipartimento
di Zoologia, Università di Torino, Torino, Italy), Saulo Bambi (Museo di Storia Naturale dell’U-
niversità di Firenze, Sezione di Zoologia “La Specola,” Firenze, Italy), Roberto Basso (Museo civico
di Storia Natural di Jesolo, Jesolo, Italy), Edward R. Battisti (Panathlon Club, Brescia), David C.
Bernvi (Caracal Publishing, Gothenburg, Sweden), Miguel Berrios (NOAA Fisheries, Pacific Islands
Region Observer Program, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA), Didier Berthet (Centre de Conservation et
d’Etude des Collection, Musée des Confluences, Lyon, France), Christian Bertok (Trieste, Italy),
Vinicio Biagi (alla memoria), Ezio Bocedi (Carrara, Italy), Roberto Boracci (Italy), Giovanni Bosco
(Italy), Enrico Borgo (Museo Civico di Storia Naturale “Giacomo Doria,” Genova, Italy), Mario
Bozzi Editore (Genova, Italy), Mohamed Nejmeddine Bradaï (Laboratoire Biodiversité et Biotech-
nologie Marines, Institut National des Sciences et Technologies de la Mer, Sfax, Tunisie), Pierre
Brocchi (Aquanaude, Nice, France), Andrea Bryk (Haus der Natur, Salzburg, Austria), John Clay
Bruner (Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada),
Michèle Bruni (Musée Océanographique, Monaco-Ville, Principauté de Monaco), Alex “The
Sharkman” Buttigieg (Sharkman’s World Organization, San Gwann, Malta), Philippe Candegabe
(Muséum d’histoire naturelle de Grenoble, Grenoble, France), Ernesto Capanna (Facoltà di Scienze
Matematiche, Fisiche e Naturali, Università di Roma “La Sapienza,” Roma, Italy), Christian Capapé
(Laboratoire d’Ichtyologie, Université Montpellier II, Sciences et Techniques du Languedoc, Mont-
pellier, France), Henri Cappetta (Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution, Université de Montpellier
II—Sciences et Techniques du Languedoc, Montpellier, France), Stefano Carletti (Italy), Baldas-
sare Carollo (Alcamo, Italy), Stefano Catalani (Senigallia, Italy), Gioacchino Cataldo (Tonnara di
Favignana, Favignana, Italy), Luigi Cavaleri (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto per lo
Studio delle Dinamica delle Grandi Masse, Venezia, Italy), Antonio Celona (Aquastudio Research
ix
