A hammerhead shark was discovered lying dead in fishing nets in a designated marine park off Hurghada in the Egyptian Red Sea by divers this week. A technical diving instructor and his three students spotted the dead shark at a depth of 55m while on a training dive on the popular dive site of Small Giftun, which is within the marine park area.
Legislation to ban shark fishing in the Red Sea was introduced by the Egyptian government in October 2005, in response to a series of negotiations and lobbying by the Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association (HEPCA).
Paul Vinten, technical diving supervisor of Tekstreme Diving at Hurghada-based Emperor Divers, said it appeared that the shark had tried to break free.
'Looking at the pieces of debris lying next to the shark, it appears that after being illegally caught, it put up so much of a fight that it probably broke the net free from the fishing boat,' Vinten told DIVE. 'By that time though it was too late for the shark which just sank to the bottom. For two of the students, it was their first hammerhead sighting and certainly one they will never forget, but for all the wrong reasons.'
