‘Shark’ sparks panic on Spanish beach as tourists yell at their children to get out of the water… but it’s not what it seems
- The large creature was seen writhing in the ocean in La Antilla, Spain.
- Panicked tourists could be seen warning their children to get out of the water.
This is the dramatic moment in which a fin emerged from the sea causing panic among vacationers on a Spanish beach.
In the video, locals and tourists can be heard warning their children to get out of the water in La Antilla, Spain, while others run up and down the beach fearing a shark is about to attack.
The creature was filmed wallowing among swimmers and youngsters on paddle boards for more than a minute before returning to the ocean.
It comes after a series of shark sightings near Mediterranean beaches in recent weeks. On June 22, a blue shark or blue shark sparked a panic on Aguamarina beach, in Orihuela Costa, south of Alicante.
But in the dramatic images of La Antilla on Tuesday, all was not as it seemed.
Locals and tourists can be heard warning their children to get out of the water in La Antilla, Spain, while others run up and down the beach fearing a shark is about to attack.
Police later described it as a Cuvier’s beaked whale and urged people to keep “calm”.
The force said: ‘It’s not a shark and you’re not going to see Steven Spielberg on shore with his camera.’ It’s not an orca either.
“The animal that has paid us a visit appears to be a Cuvier’s beaked whale, which holds the record for deep-sea dives but is very sensitive to sonar. You may be disoriented and about to be stranded.
Cuvier’s beaked whale is one of the most widely seen beaked whales despite its deep-sea habitat.
Master divers have been known to dive to depths of around 1.9 miles.
The species also holds the record for the longest dive. A whale spent three hours and 42 minutes without coming up for air, according to scientists.
On June 28, another blue shark was sighted off one of the docks on the island of Arousa, in the Galician province of Pontevedra.
The creature was filmed wallowing among swimmers and youngsters on paddle boards for more than a minute before returning to the ocean.
But police later described it as a Cuvier’s beaked whale and urged people to remain “calm.”
Cuvier’s beaked whale is one of the most widely seen beaked whales despite its deep-sea habitat.
The footage showed the shark’s fin appearing above the water line as it approached a fisherman’s boat.
But blue sharks rarely bite humans, but have been implicated in several biting incidents, four of which are said to have ended fatally.
A blue shark was blamed for an attack on a tourist in Elche, near Alicante, in July 2016.
The 40-year-old victim was rushed to the hospital and given stitches to a wound on her hand.
Lifeguards described the bite as “big” and said it had risen from the sea with blood oozing from the wound.
In August 2018, tourists fled the sea in a panic after a blue shark, one of the most common in Spain, washed up off the crowded Majorcan beach of Calas de Majorca, on the island’s east coast.
In April, a seven-foot shark also believed to be a blue shark was filmed in the waves off the southeast coast of Mallorca at a nearby beach called Cala Llombards.
