After a summer of shark appearances along the Croatian Adriatic, a new video of a creature from the depths was posted in the Facebook group “Bakarac is a little paradise” (Bakarac je mali raj). But just what was filmed swimming in the Bay of Bakar?
As Morski writes on the 30th of August, 2019, this new piece of footage has sparked an avalanche of commentary because a very large specimen from the depths of the sea that many would assume is a shark has been filmed. Sadly, we must disappoint you – this isn’t a shark.
The ”shark” captured on video is in fact not Jaws coming up to the surface for a bit of a look around, but likely a very large tuna.
As usual, in these situations, Morski asked an associate of the Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries in Split, Pero Ugarković, for his professional opinion, and he immediately explained that there was no doubt that this animal is a tuna, and from the way it was swimming, it seemed to have an injured tail.
Tuna in this area is nothing unusual, Bakar has always been known as the maritime, commercial and fishing centre of the northern Croatian coast. One of the most important branches of the economy was certainly tuna fishing at one point.
According to the information provided by the Bakar Tourist Board, the last active tuna fishing site was “Bakarac” located in the Bay of Bakar, and it worked until the second half of the twentieth century. There were also several more.
Today, there are no more tuna fishers in Bakar and now only old photographs testify to their former presence and the former economic significance of this activity.
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