One day fishing on the beach in Melaque several fishermen were excited and said that I should go to the cooperativa. My friend Jorge had caught a 7'+ hammerhead shark. Sharks have live birth. When they cut the shark open, there were about 7 or 8 alive baby hammerhead sharks. Intrigued by this I did research, if I recall correctly, there are about 7 varieties of hammerheads but the variety here is non-threatening to humans.

My landlord grew up fishing here. He told me that with his casting net, he once caught a 3' long shark on the beach in Melaque in front of the Malecon that is in El Centro. Another time he went out early with his buddies and came back with 8 sharks. They were impressive and tasty! They were catching other types of fish then along came a school of sharks that ate their fish off the hooks before they could be reeled in; a lot of sharks got hooked in the process.

When I first came to this region when I asked my host about safety and swimming, I was told that sharks are not usually a problem. However, I was also told that they migrated along the coast which indicates to me that perhaps they are not always here. Quien sabe? with shifting weather patterns maybe sharks have opted for a different vacation schedule as well, and possibly like many others they are only visitors.