Mallorca fish are biting tourists

There’s nothing better than a dip in the Mediterranean on a sweltering summer day – especially during the current heatwave that’s baking all of Europe under the oppressive summer sun. However, holidaymakers may have to watch out when they go for a swim this season. As it turns out, tourists are being attacked by small, vicious, and worst of all, practically invisible foes.

Mallorca’s infamous biting fish are back, and the first cases of 2025 have already been reported. Recently, the Mediterranean has been host to vicious little fish that commonly bite swimmers on their feet and toes. The perpetrators are juvenile fish, only a few days or weeks old, and so small and transparent in the water that they are practically invisible, according to marine biologist Silvia García.

Although most bites are not serious, one holidaymaker, German tourist Axel O., who spoke of the incident in a letter to the Mallorca Magazine, claimed he needed to rush out of the water when he was bitten because it caused him to bleed significantly.

Marine biologists have a good guess as to why the incidents are increasing in number: the steadily climbing average temperature of the ocean, which this year has reached record highs in Mallorca. The warmer waters tend to make the fish hungrier, and in turn they are less scared of humans.