TERROR FIND
Massive shark spotted off the coast of Spain in fourth sighting in holiday hotspot loved by Brits
A SHARK has been spotted in a Spanish port less than a week after another sparked panic at a Costa Blanca beach.
The blue shark was seen off one of the docks on the island of Arousa, just north of Portugal, on Wednesday.
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The shark was seen in the Ria de Arousa estuary, which is popular with tourists because of its white sandy beaches.
The latest sighting brings the total number of sharks spotted in the sea off the Spanish coast to four in one week.
Three were blue sharks or tintoreras, the same species behind an attack on a holidaymaker in Elche near Alicante in July 2016.
The other was a bluntnose sixgill shark, sometimes called the cow shark.
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Cow sharks aren't a threat to humans because they're so small and usually stay in deep waters.
Footage taken on Wednesday showed the shark’s fin appear above the water line as it approached a fisherman’s boat.
Local fisherman Rogelio Santos Queiruga insisted the shark sighting was "good news", but added that holidaymakers should be wary.
He said: “If we try to touch it, it can hurt us with its teeth or rough skin.
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“The fact they are seen close to the coast is good news.
“It is a sign that on the high seas, where they usually live, they may be recovering following decades of overfishing.”
The shark, which appeared to be injured, was around five feet-long and thought to be young.
Last Thursday a fully-grown blue shark measuring some seven feet caused panic off the Costa Blanca beach of Aguamarina, south of Alicante.
Lifeguards blew their whistles as bathers struggled to run through waist-high water.
One elderly woman allegedly suffered a panic attack after realising the shark was beside her.
The next day it washed up dead by rocks a couple of miles away at La Caleta Beach in Cabo Roig.
The same day it emerged the same species of shark was spotted inside Ciutadella Port in Menorca.
Over the weekend a cow shark approached a boat belonging to a group of fishermen off Cap de Formentor, near Puerto Pollensa in Majorca.
The men turned the boat engine off to avoid hurting it.
Blue sharks rarely bite humans but four people have died after attacks.
A blue shark was blamed for an attack on a holidaymaker in Elche near Alicante in July 2016.
The 40-year-old victim was rushed to hospital and given stitches to a wound in his hand.
First aiders said the bite was “large” and claimed the victim came out of the sea with blood streaming from the injury.
Tourists fled the sea in August 2018 after a blue shark, among the most common in Spain, appeared near the packed Calas de Majorca on the island’s east coast.
In April, a near seven-foot shark, also believed to be a tintorera, was filmed on the southeast coast of Majorca at a nearby beach called Cala Llombards.
A Spanish woman watched it as its tell-tale fin appeared above the water’s surface and it headed towards the shoreline in the clear water before nearly beaching on the sand.
She could be heard saying: “This one is going to end up getting stuck here. We have to get it out of the water, it’s going to stay where it is.”
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Earlier this month Russian tourist Vladimir Popov, 23, was filmed being attacked by a tiger shark and dragged underwater off the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Hurghada.
His body parts were later recovered from inside the predator’s belly after it was clubbed to death by beachgoers.
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