A pointy grey snout breaks the water and two death-black eyes stare menacingly at the camera. The massive tooth-lined grin hides just below the surface.

Shark fever could reach a frenzy in Cornwall this morning when a local newspaper prints razor-sharp pictures of a great white shark apparently patrolling the sea a mile offshore.

The Newquay Guardian has placed its faith in photographs taken by Kevin Keeble, a nightclub bouncer who claims to have snapped the shark two weeks ago while on a fishing trip near Towan Head. Mr Keeble, 52, told The Times last night that he stood by the image. He declined to name the friend whose boat he was on because he did not want any publicity.

Mr Keeble told the Newquay Guardian that he was fishing for mackerel when he spotted a fin in the distance. “The shark was about 100ft away,” he said. “It was only there for a few seconds before it disappeared. I’ve been fishing off Newquay for 25 years and I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Phil Goodwin, a reporter for the newspaper, said that they were printing the picture in good faith. He said: “It looks a little too good to be true, but people who know [Mr Keeble] have said that he’s not the sort of guy to make things up.”

Cornish fishermen are too canny to rule out the possibility that a great white could stray into their waters. But they are unanimous that the giant fin pictured in The Sun this week belonged to a basking shark.

Richard Peirce, the chairman of the Shark Trust, said that he was struggling not to despair.

He said: “As someone who believes that great whites have been occasional visitors to these waters for thousands of years, I can’t rule out the possibility that that is what it might be.”

Shark tales

— Bill Fry, the mayor, is concerned the shark may damage tourism. “This sort of silly season story is good for a laugh but if it goes on . . . people think there really might be something out there.”

— Fishermen in St Ives expressed scepticism that a great white could be in the area. Simon Freeman said: “If there was a big shark in the water here, the seals would be spooked and the dolphins would have cleared off, and they haven’t. ”

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