A SHARK FEROCE ON A BRETON BEACH

A remake of the Teeth of the sea in the Morbihan ? No, just one requin ferocious who ran aground Saturday morning on a beach in Pénestin, a town on the edge of the mouth of the Vilaine.

But let's reassure the regulars of the beach in question: on the one hand the animal was dead, and on the other hand, this species (Odontaspis ferox) is only ferocious in the name: according to the Association for the Study and Conservation of Selachians (APECS), which reports the information on its website, it is named so because of its impressive jaw, which shelters very long teeth in the shape of a curved dagger, and its massive body of sea pitbull ... But apart from its aspect of killer beast, it remains harmless to the man.

Rather used to tropical waters

Alerted by firefighters, APECS and the Concarneau Biological Station went to the site and performed an autopsy on this adult male of 3,24m and 220 kg whose presence in this part of the globe is relatively surprising: indeed, the ferocious shark frequents mainly warm temperate and tropical waters and tends to live in deep waters, between 300 and 800m. So he had nothing to do in the cold Breton waters.

However, this is not the first time that a ferocious shark has been spotted in this area: a first shark of the same type was stranded a year ago on the Cotentin coast, in Normandy. The latter, found alive, could have been put back into the water. These two strandings are therefore now the two most northerly reports and intrigued scientists from APECS and from the Concarneau marine biology station.

It is assumed that the latter shark was a victim of the fishery. The Apecs therefore appealed to the boat which could have recovered this specimen in their net in order to collect information on the precise place of its capture.

by Laurent Deschamps
the 24 September 2013 to 07h42, updated the 24 September 2013 to 08h01.