A yachtsman captured a very uncommon sight in the Mediterranean. A great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) has been observed and filmed off the French Riviera coast, near the islands of Porquerolles and Port-Cros, according to a France 3 Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur report published on Monday, November 18. "The individual observed off Port-Cros is indeed a great white shark. I think it's a young one, not a juvenile, but not yet an adult," according to Nicolas Ziani, scientific director of the Groupe phocéen d'étude des requins (GPER) quoted by the TV channel.

The alert had been given four days earlier on Facebook by Matt Lapinski, biologist and member of the Citizen's Participatory Observatory of Elasmobranchs [sharks and rays] in the French Mediterranean (ELASMED).

"At the beginning of November, our friends and partners at Apecs [Association for the Study and Conservation of Pelagic Sharks] received a sighting of a large shark measuring 3.5 to 4.5 meters cruising on the surface off the Var coast," he wrote, with supporting photos.

'Threat of extinction'

According to Lapinski, it was possible to identify the species of shark after the data was sent to the National Natural History Museum for analysis. "This is superb news for this critically endangered species, which has virtually disappeared from the French coast and even from the Mediterranean, due to widely disparate levels of protection in different countries," he added, adding that since its first sighting in early November, "the shark has not been seen again."

The great white shark is listed as "critically endangered" on the European Red List of Threatened Species, and classified as "vulnerable" worldwide, according to the National Inventory of Natural Heritage.