Sharks in France: what are the risk areas?

Sharks are mythical animals that make men tremble as much as they fascinate them. Stars of horror movies, these beasts are often considered some of the most terrifying still living in our time.

Yet they are far from the deadliest. In 2021, researchers from the International Shark Attack File, the Florida Museum of Natural History and the American Elasmobranch Society recorded 73 unprovoked incidents of shark attacks in their annual report. The same year, a total of 11 deaths were declared, including 9 resulting from unprovoked attacks, reports Geo.

Although these figures are slightly higher than in previous years, they are still close to the global annual average over the past five years, which is 72 incidents.

In France, shark attacks are very rare. However, in mainland France, there are still around fifty different species in the Mediterranean and around a hundred in the Atlantic, explain our colleagues from RTL. Among these species, a large majority are harmless such as the basking shark, a giant that only devours plankton and is therefore harmless to humans.

However, there are still more dangerous species like the great white shark, but these prefer to swim in the depths, away from the beaches. This is also the case for most sharks, so that blue, mole or basking sharks, all harmless, are among those rare species to be observed on the coasts of mainland France.

In some French areas, sharks are still more observed than elsewhere. Discover them in our slideshow*.

*Based on data from the OBSenMER collaborative platform.