Summer is here and, as always, reports of "big fish" start making the news. However, a new trend is now developing and if we are not careful, this can have a very negative impact. I am referring to the countless number of photos that are going around the internet via e-mails, showing sharks "photographed" close to our shores.

These images are all fakes and those producing them have a very bad sense of humour and do not realise the damage they can do to our tourism for starters. Just imagine what may happen if these photos fall into the hands of some foreign tabloids. The photos appearing in The Times (June 23) when closely examined are of very poor quality and easily recognised as fakes but I have seen some others that are much more convincing.

There is also the issue of false information spreading around. Photos of the recently caught Mako shark were being passed around with claims that it was "a Great White caught just off Cirkewwa". That shark was caught 30 miles out and it is an open water species. These sharks mainly hunt tuna, mackerels, bonitos, herrings, swordfish and other sharks, so they very rarely get close to land. Although Mako sharks are known as the fastest fish, they are not considered very dangerous, unless provoked, and in fact they are one of the favourite species sought in shark eco-tourism.

Local fishermen catch a lot of sharks every week and this is well known to all those in the trade.

They are caught from far out but they never make the news unless their size is large. Locally, scuba divers very rarely encounter any species of sharks underwater but when they do it is a highlight and there is never cause for alarm.

I agree with Johnna Mula Grech (June 17) that fish farms and tuna pans do attract sharks and I have publicly spoken about this many times. All the farms and pans should be reallocated much further out at sea like they are in other countries.

Regretfully, issues involving sharks are always blown way out of proportion due to the false image that these magnificent creatures have been branded with. The real facts show a different picture altogether. The chances of a shark incident happening here are about one in 10,000,000 and that percentage is getting lower due to the massive drop in global shark figures. In the last 10 years, some shark species have drastically reduced by over 80 per cent and about 100 species are listed as endangered in the IUCN Redlist and they need to be protected. More than 200 million sharks are killed every year.

We have to remember that every time we venture into the sea we are "guests". We do not belong there but sharks do! It is their home and we have to learn to accept and respect that.

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