Featured image: Shark seen in the Adriatic Sea/Screenshot MaguroProShop
A group of fishermen have reported an unusually close encounter with a large shark in Croatia while on a boat trip near the island of Žirje.
The encounter was filmed and shared on TikTok by a fishing equipment shop, whose team identified the animal as a shortfin mako shark measuring more than three metres in length. According to the post, the shark seen in the Adriatic Sea was spotted near Žirje, an island in the Šibenik archipelago.
When viewers questioned whether the shark was really as large as it appeared in the video, the fishermen explained how they arrived at their estimate.
“The stern of our boat is 3.8 metres wide, and the shark was maybe half a metre shorter than that. So we’d estimate it at around 3.2–3.3 metres,” they wrote.
Shark reportedly took a bite from their tuna
The encounter did not end with the shark simply swimming alongside the boat. According to the fishermen, it also took a bite from a tuna they had caught.
They explained that mako sharks are known to attack tuna around the tail, slowing the fish down and making it more difficult for it to continue swimming normally.
The fishermen are confident that the shark seen in the Adriatic Sea was a mako. However, the sighting has not yet been confirmed by the Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries or another scientific institution that could independently identify the species. The reported size of approximately 3.2 to 3.3 metres also remains the fishermen’s estimate.
Mako shark sightings in the Adriatic Sea
The shortfin mako shark (Isurus oxyrinchus) is not unknown in the Adriatic, although sightings are relatively uncommon. A study published by researchers from the Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries in Split documented eight shortfin mako sharks in the Adriatic between 2014 and 2017 based on photographic evidence.
Researchers noted that several of the recorded animals were juveniles, suggesting that parts of the Adriatic, particularly its eastern side, could serve as a nursery area for the species.
Mako sharks are highly mobile, open-water predators and are among the shark species naturally occurring in the Mediterranean. Their presence in the Adriatic is therefore not considered unusual, although encounters close enough to boats to be clearly filmed are far from an everyday occurrence.
For now, the identity and estimated size of the shark seen in the Adriatic Sea near Žirje remain unverified by scientists, with the identification as a mako based on the fishermen’s observations.
