The shots of the street lamp and underwater photographer Roberto Merlo, published in the monthly 'Underwater World' in August 1964. The report documented the presence of sandbar sharks in the waters of the Strait of Sicily desert island off the coast of Lampedusa. Secondo Merlo, ad attirare questi pesci predatori - tuttora presenti a Lampione - sarebbe stata anche la pesca con il tritolo praticata allora dai pescatori lampedusani: gli squali si sarebbero cibati dei pesci uccisi dalle deflagrazioni e sfuggiti alle reti
“Cominciamo a vedere dei fusi oscuri – più scuri dell’ambiente – squali. Uno, due, sono in molti. Vengono a curiosare verso di noi e, ad una decina di metri, deviano in ampi giri. Uno di loro è veramente grosso. Potrà misurare tre metri, tre metri e mezzo. Ha un corpo tozzo, è sicuro di sé, azzarda qualche puntata più vicina. ( … ) Gli squali sono ora più diffidenti. Ma uno, sui due metri, vuole vedere chi siamo. Romano gli va incontro e larghe falcate, gli si affianca. Un boato e lo squalo è colpito. E’ il primo squalo catturato a Lampione da un subacqueo. Siamo esultanti”.
Quello proposto da REPORTAGE SICILIA è probabilmente uno dei primi articoli giornalistici dedicati agli squali di Lampione, il grosso roccione deserto che si erge sul mare del Canale di Sicilia, 12 miglia ONO da Lampedusa e già noto ai naviganti di epoca greco-romana con il nome di ‘Schola’; di quell'epoca, rimangono le tracce restituite dall'archeologia underwater: logs, contromarre anchor and lead ingots, amphorae Africa and also a great millstone with two invaded. The history of this remote corner of Italy, geologically linked to the African continental shelf, leaving space a few guidelines: a ban on landing for health reasons - motivated by the risk of contagion of the plague in Libya, in 1783 - and the discovery of the depths of the rock, in 1897, a thriving black sponge beds, subject to raiding by the Greek fishermen and Dalmatia.
The report was published in August 1964 by the magazine 'Underwater World', signed by the Roberto Merlo underwater. The latter, a few weeks earlier he had organized a shipment of three days, just with the intent to document the presence of sharks. With the help of Ramon Di Malta, described as "the famous host of Lampedusa, a couple of fishermen in the largest of the Pelagie transported at Lamp Post's team of divers, and the food needed to survive on that rectangle of land 250 meters long and top 36, more populated only by shearwaters from lizards and ants of African origin.
The report of 'Underwater World' will return the image of the cruel hunting with a gun to the sharks - a practice Fortunately, today opposed by the majority of divers - and the colors of the sea of \u200b\u200bone of the few places still really wild in the Mediterranean Sea. In our day, Lamp has a colony of gray sharks and hammerhead sharks. The western side of the islet - the most spectacular - continues under the water with a great wealth of flora and colorful gorges, up to a plateau of light-colored rock with hundreds of sea urchins on the rocks. In 1964 , photographs by Roberto Merlo documented by putting a condition possibly related to the presence of sharks: the use of dynamite by fishermen from Lampedusa, the time involved in the race of hundreds large amberjack. "The night is cold , the north wind has chilled my bones. As soon as we got up we heat something - writes Merlo - shakes us a great roar. We run to the summit of the cliff and we see a vessel with the crew searches in water. They threw dynamite. Maybe it was a pack of urchins. Now we know why a street lamp there are sharks. Too many bombers around here absolutely uncontrolled. The fund is desert fauna and flora. Pass only the sea urchins, and are open for you, find bombs. Then, those that fall at depths too high, they end up in the mouth ai pescecani, avvertiti della mangianza da lunga consuetudine”.
