Page 9 - Carcharodon2001

ANNALES · Ser. hist. nat. · 11 · 2001 · 2 (25)

Alessandro DE MADDALENA et al.: AN ANALYSIS OF THE PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCES OF THE LARGEST GREAT WHITE SHARKS, ..., 193-206

Figs. 9, 10: Specimen caught oii Fili/a (Malta) on Apri/17'" 1987. (Photo: A. De Maddalena 's archive)
SI. 9, 1O: Primerek, ujet nedalec od Fili/e (Malta) 17. aprila 1987. (Foto: A rhiv A. De Maddalene)

In the end, it was not possible to find anyone else Grezzju Grech, who was present when the shark was
that measured the shark, so it seems certain that john landed, affirmed that in his opinion it is possible that the
Abela was effectively the only person to have done it. specimen was 7 m long (M. Darmanin, pers. comm.).
We were able to collect testimonies of three eyewit- The severa! requests far more information about this
nesses that had seen the shark. Mr. Alex Buttigieg, a per- case made recently by one of the authors (A.D.) to John
son that asked to remain anonymous, and the fisheries Abela remained unanswered, but we have had some re-
officer Mr. Grezzju Grech. None of them had a chance plies to our questions from him via Mr. Michael Dar-
to measure the shark (the anonymous witness went to manin, Senior Fisheries Officer at Malta Centre far Fish-
the Valletta fish market early in the morning with a eries Sciences (Department of Fisheries and Aquacul-
camera and measuring tape only a minute before the ture, Fort San Lucjan, Marsaxlokk): this last information,
shark was cut up, but had no permission to take photos together with those from Mr. Buttigieg and the anony-
or measurements). Alex Buttigieg and the anonymous mous witness, helped us to reconstruct the entire story
witness declared to have estimated the shark's length to
be conspicuously less than the 714 cm TOT reported by as reported herewith.
John Abela, but larger than the 520-550 cm TL esti- There are many photographs of this specimen, but

mated by Fergusson (1998) and Fergusson et al. (2000). most of them simply cannot be used for a reasonably
good estimate to be made; the ampie photographic evi-
The anonymous eyewitness estimated the length at ap- dence as far as this specimen is concerned demonstrates
proximately "18,5-19,5 feet" (564-594 cm) or "dose to
20 feet" (61 O cm), made at a distance of about 12 feet, how much can be distorted as well as difficult to evalu-
when the shark was placed on the floor at the Valletta ate the size of a large specimen if photo is not taken
fishmarket. Alex Buttigieg estimated it to be "less than adequately. For the reasons exposed in the Materials
20 feet" (610 cm), from a distance of about 20 m. Mr. and Methods section, photos as the one showing the
head of the shark suspended in vertical position with the

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