"For 20 years in which I have been researching the dolphin population in Israel, I have not seen any evidence of a dolphin being attacked by a shark," said Dr. Aviad Scheinin, top Predator Project manager at the Morris Khan Marine Research Station at the University of Haifa. "We will continue to monitor the dolphin population in order to understand whether this is an unusual incident of assault or a new phenomenon."
Researchers from the University of Haifa are conducting a routine dolphin survey off the coast of Ashdod in collaboration with the Ashdod Center for Education and Sports, as part of a long-term ecological study of local dolphins.
The dolphin was originally identified and tagged by researchers in November of last year and was found again a few weeks ago with scars on the side of his body.
Based on the photos and consultations with experts from around the world, the researchers determined that these were scars from a shark attack.
Based on an analysis of the scars, Scheinin believes that the shark involved in the attack was either a dusky shark or a bluntnose sixgill shark, although he stressed that it is not possible to determine with certainty which species of shark was involved.
While studies around the world have found that these two species of shark attack dolphins, Scheinin has not seen any evidence of this in his 20 years of research.
"In areas where large sharks such as great white shark or tiger sharks live, we see many dolphins with scar marks. Since here in Israel we had not yet identified a single dolphin with scars, it had led us to think that there are no such attacks in Israel, or at least that they are very infrequent. The new evidence requires us to examine whether this is an isolated case or a new phenomenon," said Scheinin.