Planning a holiday in Turkey but you’re terrified of the idea of sharks roaming the waters around the beach? You worry that you may end up on a headline titled “Turkish shark attack takes another”? Isn’t that a bit paranoid? We’ll examine that in today’s post.
Sharks can obviously be scary and dangerous, but are they actually a threat to tourists in Turkey? There are more than 45 species of sharks in the Mediterranean, and so the variety and amount of sharks in the Mediterranean waters is large, as the sea’s high temperatures favour sharks.
What shark species can you encounter around Turkey? White sharks, sand sharks, dogfish sharks, brown sharks and many more. Though will you in reality? Very, very unlikely, as there are barely any shark attacks in Turkey – barely a couple have been recorded in over a hundred years, as sharks rarely come anywhere near the shores anyway.
Most of these were in the Sea of Marmara, between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Two ended fatally. Though this is still a tragedy, and we would not want to undermine the weight of this event for the families and loved ones of the victims, comparing two fatal cases to the number of tourists in Turkey yields really tiny chances of shark attacks happening in the first place and actually proving fatal.
The time of day when sharks hunt also does not coincide with tourists beachcombing – feeding usually continues after sunset and just before dawn.
You can swim safely in Turkish waters and beaches, just watch out for other less dangerous but more common animals, like jellyfish and sea urchins.
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