The shark that was spotted off the coast of Sliema on Friday was probably brought so close to shore by strong easterly winds, according to a seasoned fisherman.

A video of the shark swimming in the sea off Tigné was posted to Facebook at the end of the week and spread like wildfire online.

Ray Bugeja, an experienced fisherman and former secretary of the Kooperativa Nazzjonali tas-Sajd, said he was almost certain the fish is a blue shark.

“What most likely happened is that the shark was feeding on something, possibly a tuna, further out at sea, and did not realise it was being pushed towards land,” he said.

Greg Nowell, the founder of Shark Lab Malta agreed with Bugeja that it was likely a blue shark, and said the fisherman’s theory on how the shark came so close to shore was plausible.

“It’s very rare to see one so close to shore. They’re placid oceangoing creatures that are generally uninterested in humans,” he said, recalling how in 2016, a blue shark was washed ashore in Pembroke before being rescued by conservationists.

Nowell said the public had nothing to fear, and that the shark sighting was positive, since the blue shark population in the Mediterranean is believed to have dropped by 90 per cent in recent decades due to fishing.

The shark was first identified as a great white by National Aquarium curator Daniel De Castro. Various other experts, including marine biologist Alan Deidun and shark expert Alex Buttigieg, later said the shark could have also been a shortfin mako or porbeagle shark.

Nowell said that, while it was hard to be sure from just the video, he believed it was a blue shark mainly because of the shape of the upper part of the animal’s tail, which, unlike the other sharks mentioned, is elongated rather than symmetrical.

“The shape of the tail also means the shark moves in a more pronounced side-to-side motion than other similar sharks,” he said.