ANNALES · Ser. hist. nat. · 30 · 2020 · 2
147
received: 2020-05-26                 DOI 10.19233/ASHN.2020.16
A HISTORICAL CATCH OF WHITE SHARK, CARCHARODON CARCHARIAS 
(LAMNIFORMES: LAMNIDAE), IN THE SEA OF MARMARA (TURKEY) 
FROM THE 1950s
Hakan KABASAKAL
Ichthyological Research Society, Tantavi mahallesi, Menteşoğlu caddesi, İdil apartmanı, No: 30, D: 4, TR-34764 Ümraniye, İstanbul, Turkey
e-mail: kabasakal.hakan@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
In the late 1950s, a white shark, Carcharodon carcharias (Linnaeus, 1758), was incidentally captured by tuna 
handliners off the coast of Burgazada. Currently, 58 white sharks have been reported from Turkish waters, which 
represents some 7.5 percent of the total Mediterranean records (n=773). The decrease in white shark sightings from 
the Sea of Marmara over the years is most likely linked to a strong decline of tuna populations in the same region. 
The present study is one of the many examples of effective use of internet-based records in white shark research.
Key words: white shark, Carcharodon carcharias, Sea of Marmara, historical record, bycatch
CATTURA STORICA DI SQUALO BIANCO, CARCHARODON CARCHARIAS 
(LAMNIFORMES: LAMNIDAE), NEL MAR DI MARMARA (TURCHIA) DAGLI ANNI ‘50
SINTESI
Alla fine degli anni ‘50, uno squalo bianco, Carcharodon carcharias (Linnaeus, 1758), fu accidentalmente 
catturato da tonniere a mano al largo della costa di Burgazada. Attualmente nelle acque turche sono stati segnalati 
58 squali bianchi, che rappresentano circa il 7,5 % delle segnalazioni totali per il Mediterraneo (n = 773). La 
diminuzione nel numero di avvistamenti di squali bianchi nel Mar di Marmara è molto probabilmente legata a 
un forte calo delle popolazioni di tonno nella stessa regione. Il presente studio è uno dei tanti esempi di utilizzo 
efficace dei dati disponibili su Internet nella ricerca sugli squali bianchi.
Parole chiave: squalo bianco, Carcharodon carcharias, Mar di Marmara, segnalazione storica, catture accidentali
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INTRODUCTION
Large sharks and their hunters have always been 
a bankable commodity for the media, a guarantee for 
attracting the public interest (Francis, 2012). Due to 
logistical difficulties of studying a marine predator 
of that size, the white shark, Carcharodon carcharias 
(Linnaeus, 1758) has often been described as elusive 
(Huveneers et al., 2018). For that reason, as well as 
the white shark’s charismatic nature and dramatic 
interactions with humans, reports of the species tend 
to gain significant public attention. C. carcharias is 
an epipelagic shark, inhabiting coastal and offshore 
waters, from the surface down to a depth of 1300 m 
(Serena, 2005). While its contemporary Mediterranean 
distribution range extends over the entire region, the 
species is currently absent from the Sea of Marmara, 
where it had been a documented bycatch of bluefin 
tuna, Thunnus thynnus (Linnaeus, 1758), until the last 
quarter of the 20th century (De Maddalena & Heim, 
2012; Kabasakal, 2003). With the advent of social 
media and the digitization of photographs of historical 
shark catches, which may be uploaded to the internet, 
researchers nowadays have more opportunities to ac-
cess the historical material about events sunken into 
oblivion. In the present article, the author reports on 
a historical catch of white shark off the Prince Islands 
(Sea of Marmara), in the 1950s.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
An extensive research dealing with the identification 
of historical and contemporary records of C. carcharias 
in Turkish waters has been conducted since 2000, and 
the present article is part of this ongoing study, the 
results of which were published in previous years (rele-
vant publications are summarized in Kabasakal, 2019). 
Species identification follows the criteria proposed 
by Serena (2005). Photographs of the here presented 
white shark are preserved in the digital archives of the 
Ichthyological Research Society. While the historical 
account of this great white shark is available at the link 
below, the author conducted online interviews with 
an elderly islander, Mrs. Maria Pilitsoglou, who wit-
nessed the capture of this specimen, to provide further 
evidence supporting the provenance of the historical 
catch: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1
30023338618546&id=100048326409241.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Sometime during the late 1950s, a white shark, C. 
carcharias, was captured by tuna handliners off the 
coast of Burgazada (Sea of Marmara; Fig. 1). Based 
on the principal descriptive characters (Serena, 2005), 
including large triangular teeth, strong and conical 
snout, (clearly depicted in Fig. 2), the present speci-
men was identified as C. carcharias. The length of the 
white shark was reportedly 4 m. Two recreational fish-
ermen from Burgazada, Mr. Muvakkar Orhon and Mr. 
Selimpaşalı Ali, set out to sea to catch bluefin tuna by 
handline, which was the main method used in bluefin 
tuna fishery in the Sea of Marmara during the 1950s. 
In handlining bluefin tuna, a large bonito, Sarda sarda 
(Bloch, 1793), was fixed on a chunky fishing hook. 
These were mostly hand-made, forged by blacksmiths. 
The scarcity of large high-quality, ready-to-use fishing 
hooks to be utilized by bluefin tuna handliners dur-
ing that period was the main reason why incidentally 
captured white sharks had to be landed in order for the 
fishing hook to be removed from the animal’s jaws with 
the least possible damage to it.
After baiting the hook with a bonito, the fishermen 
lowered the hook and line at a depth of around 30 m 
and waited for the bluefin tuna to bite. According to 
their statements, the fishermen were very experienced 
handliners, having captured over 300 bluefin tunas 
during the previous years, and several white sharks 
as well. The white shark that took the bait struggled 
with the hook and the fishermen for nearly two hours, 
then perished. After the animal had been landed on 
the Burgazada coast, one of the islanders, Captain 
Bebeko, detached one of its teeth; unfortunately, ac-
cording to the interview with the Captain’s daughter, 
Mrs. Maria Pilitsoglou, this valuable sample was 
lost. Nevertheless, Mrs. Pilitsoglou provided a clear 
description of the tooth, which was triangular in 
shape, with serrated edges, a well-known descriptive 
character of C. carcharias. Her statement is available 
on the social media at the following link: https://m.
facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=13002333861854
6&id=100048326409241.
Fig. 1: Map depicting the approximate capture locality 
(⁎) of the white shark by tuna handliners off Burgaza-
da, in the 1950s.
Sl. 1: Zemljevid obravnavanega območja s približno loka-
liteto (⁎), kjer so tunolovci ujeli belega morskega volka pri 
Burgazadi v petdesetih letih prejšnjega stoletja. 
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De Maddalena & Heim (2012) and Boldrocchi et al. 
(2017), reported on the records of 596 and 628 white 
sharks, respectively. In a recent study on the abundance 
and distribution of the white shark in the Mediterranean 
Sea, Moro et al. (2019) collected 773 records of white 
shark from several parts of the Mediterranean, dated 
between 1860 and 2016. Prior to the present study, 57 
white sharks had been recorded from Turkish waters 
(Kabasakal et al., 2018). The addition of the white shark 
presented herein raises this number to 58, which repre-
sents 7.5 percent of all Mediterranean records (Moro et 
al., 2019). A close relationship between bluefin tuna and 
white shark occurrence in the Mediterranean Sea has 
been suggested by many researchers (Boldrocchi et al., 
2017; De Maddalena & Heim, 2012; Moro et al., 2019). 
Indeed, the decrease in white shark sightings in the Sea 
of Marmara over the years and the strong parallel decline 
of tuna populations in the same region (Kabasakal, 2016) 
appears to confirm that. The last sighting of C. carcharias 
in the Sea of Marmara dates back to May 1985, preced-
ing the records of last mass captures of bluefin tuna in 
Marmaric waters by only a year (Kabasakal, 2003, 2016).
Since the white shark is a critically endangered 
species in the Mediterranean and in some of its ar-
eas a protected species as well (Otero et al., 2019, 
Serena 2005), the selection of an appropriate and 
non-destructive sampling for future studies of white 
sharks is of utmost importance; presently, the screen-
ing of the internet and social media seems to be an 
advantageous method. The expansion of the use 
of internet and social networks during the last 20 
years has likely increased the probability of finding 
records of white shark captures (Moro et al., 2019), 
and the present study is one of the many examples 
of the promising use of internet-based records in 
ichthyological research.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author thanks the following persons: the elderly 
islanders, Mrs. Maria Pilitsoglou and Mr. Serço Ekşiyan, 
for sharing the information on present white shark; two 
anonymous referees for their critical reviews, which 
improved the content of the article.
Fig. 2: Front view (A) and lateral view (B) of the captured white shark. Large triangular teeth and a strong and 
conical snout are clearly visible on both images. (Photo courtesy: Burgazisland Antigoni Burgazada archive).
Sl. 2: Pogled od spredaj (A) in od strani (B) na ulovljenega belega morskega volka. Veliki trikotni zobje in močan 
ter koničast gobec so dobro vidni na obeh posnetkih (z dovoljenjem arhiva Burgazisland Antigoni Burgazada).
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Hakan KABASAKAL: A HISTORICAL CATCH OF WHITE SHARK, CARCHARODON CARCHARIAS (LAMNIFORMES: LAMNIDAE), IN THE SEA OF ..., 147–150
ZGODOVINSKI PREGLED ULOVA BELEGA MORSKEGA VOLKA, CARCHARODON 
CARCHARIAS (LAMNIFORMES: LAMNIDAE), V MARMARSKEM MORJU (TURČIJA) 
IZ PETDESETIH LET 
Hakan KABASAKAL
Ichthyological Research Society, Tantavi mahallesi, Menteşoğlu caddesi, İdil apartmanı, No: 30, D: 4, TR-34764 Ümraniye, İstanbul, Turkey
e-mail: kabasakal.hakan@gmail.com
POVZETEK
V zgodnjih petdesetih prejšnjega stoletja so belega morskega volka, Carcharodon carcharias (Linnaeus, 
1758), naključno ujeli tunolovci ob obali Burgazada. Do sedaj je bilo 58 zapisov o pojavljanju belega morskega 
volka v turških vodah, kar predstavlja 7,5 % vseh sredozemskih zapisov (n=773). Upadanje v opazovanju 
belega morskega volka v Marmarskem morju v zadnjih letih je najverjetneje povezano z močnim zdesetkanjem 
populacij tunov v regiji. Pričujoča raziskava je eden od mnogih primerov učinkovite uporabe spletnih virov pri 
raziskovanju belega morskega volka.
Ključne besede: beli morski volk, Carcharodon carcharias, Marmarsko morje, zgodovinski zapis, prilov
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