Get ready for this: there are approximately 36 species of sharks recorded in Maltese waters, and sharks were in fact first recorded in the Mediterranean! Amongst these species are basking, angel, hammerhead, and - you guessed it - great white sharks.

But you can relax. There have only been three reported shark attacks in Malta within known history. The first fatal one was a fisherman attacked in Marsascala in 1907, and the second fatality was a swimmer, also attacked in Marsascala in 1956. Since then, there has only been one (non-fatal) attack off Fort St Elmo in 2010. And its worth mentioning that this claim made by a windsurfer that his sail was bitten was unsubstantiated, and doubts were raised over the plausibility of the episode. With Malta's dense population and millions of tourists every year, this is a teeny, tiny amount.

You'd have a bigger chance of being attacked by a dog. Indeed, the majority of sharks in Maltese waters are small and not a danger to humans. Apart from this, due to the capturing of sharks for shark fin soup, there has been a decrease in sharks in the Mediterranean in recent years. A lot of the time, big tunas are mistaken for sharks and reported to the authorities, who will then take to the sea to verify whether the fish was indeed a shark. In the meantime, headlines shouting 'big fish' tend to scare the locals, which they then talk about, Chinese whisper style.

A number of shark species such as the great white, sand tiger, shortfin Mako and saw mouthed shark (amongst others) are protected in Maltese waters. Malta has programmes and research centres dedicated to the conservation of sharks which aim to manage, research and educate so that sharks can be properly protected.

Fun fact!

In 1987, local fisherman Alfredo Cutajar caught a female great white shark near Filfla. At the time, it was considered the largest great white shark ever caught, weighing three tonnes and measuring 7.13m in length. It was reported that a dolphin, a turtle and a blue shark were found inside its stomach.