Mediterranean sharks: Hunters or prey

ROME: The number of sharks in the Mediterranean Sea has fallen by 97 percent in the last 200 years, putting its ecological balance at risk, says a report.

Released by the Washington-based Lenfest Ocean Program yesterday, the report used records such as fishermen's logs, shark landings, museum specimens and visual sightings to estimate the number and size of the Mediterranean sharks over the past two centuries.

There were only enough data on five of the 20 big shark species present in the Mediterranean that were useful to the study - the hammerhead, thresher, blue and two species of mackerel shark, which averaged a decline of 97 percent.