A baby shark was caught off the coast of Vladivostok, continuing the list of shark incidents in recent months.
Scientists say the young fish must have been born in local waters, as it belongs to a breed of white shark that can live in cold water.
It is not the first time this year that sharks have been spotted in the region. They attacked people on three occasions in mid-August. Two young men and one teenager suffered serious injuries as a result of these attacks.
A two-meter-long mackerel shark was caught by fishermen not far from a children’s holiday camp.
A special headquarters was created in Primorye to oversee efforts to catch the predators. A fleet for a marine hunt was formed as well. Currently at least nine fishing boats and 10 other boats are patrolling the waters.
Dangerous sharks do not usually go that far north in the Sea of Japan. Scientists believe the predator was a great white shark – a man-eater – and are trying to work out what it was doing there.
“This type of shark rarely comes to our waters,” explained Alexander Sokolovsky, a leading expert at the Institute of Marine Biology. “It’s a species that lives in the tropical and subtropical waters of the ocean, but with global warming they are now starting to move more to the north.”
Out of roughly 360 species of sharks, just over 30 are known to be dangerous to humans. The rest are either too small or live in deep waters, but most experts agree that any shark over 1.2 meters and with sharp enough teeth can cause serious injuries, especially if there is food or blood in the water.