He didn’t have time to be afraid, but admits to being relieved that the scene took place in the middle of winter, “because the rest of the year, we work in shorts…” Cyril Foucaud is an oyster farmer from Gujan- Mestras, in the Arcachon basin, seasoned and familiar with the vagaries of the tide for years. But for the first time, he found himself face to face with a… shark, stuck in the middle of the oyster beds.
Tuesday around 1 p.m., the oyster farmer was with two of his colleagues in his parks in Cap-Ferret, opposite the village of L’Herbe between Canelon and Courbey, “when suddenly I heard big swirl in the water,” says Cyril Foucaud to 20 minutes. “As I approached, I saw a shark fin. The animal was struggling in 30 cm of water. It was a blue shark, also called blue skin.
“You shouldn’t ask too many questions, because he was going to die…”
“We were an hour before low tide, and the water continued to drop, the poor guy was completely blocked, continues the oyster farmer. We therefore decided to bring it back to the deeper waters of the basin, a hundred meters away. At first he resisted, he tried to bite us, because he didn’t understand what we wanted to do. But you shouldn’t ask too many questions, because he was going to die. »
Cyril Foucaud “ended up grabbing him by the tail” to pull him. “He started writhing to want to bite me, I had to try two or three times, and little by little he calmed down. We let him come to his senses, and we brought him back into about 1.50 meters of water. We even managed to pet him before leaving him in his element. »
The animal, more accustomed to the open ocean, can approach the coast from time to time, especially to feed. “He was more than two meters, maybe 2.40 meters” estimates Cyril Foucaud. “I didn’t even know we had such big sharks around here. And even if I know that it is a species that is normally harmless to humans, it is nonetheless impressive with its two big black eyes…”