Morning diver joined by unexpected visitor

PARIS Eleftheriou was in for a shock while scuba diving in Larnaca.
The professional diver came face-to-face with an injured tope (small shark or dogfish) while diving between the Alexandria and Zinovia shipwrecks yesterday morning.

The tope had been injured by a hook from a fishing net, with Eleftheriou removing it before releasing the animal.

The incident occurred between five and six nautical miles off the coast of Finikoudes at a depth of 27 metres.

Eleftheriou has urged fishermen, both professional and amateur, “to preserve the unique ecosystem that exists between the two shipwrecks, which are used specifically for the training of divers.”

The tope, a native of Europe, is also found along the coasts of California and Tasmania. It is also known around the world as a dogfish, oil shark, miller’s dog, and penny dog.

George Payiatas at the Fisheries Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment explained that topes found in Cyprus should be classified as dogfish and not sharks.

“Their size depends on the species and ranges from 50 centimetres to two metres,” he said. “They are pretty common in our waters, and are normally found at least ten miles from the shoreline.

“They are not especially dangerous, with the last recorded attack on a human taking place back in the 1960s when a non-fatal bite to the stomach was inflicted.”
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The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.