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A case of great white fever
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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The one on the left of your picture is a basking shark, although it is quite light in colour; the one on the right probably is.
However, pictures I have seen on Sky TV on this subject have not shown the dorsal fin of a basking shark.
Nice to see some back in British waters. They have been more or less completely absent from where I grew up in Scotland for years.
Mind you, I have been wrong about more important issues........................
Sharkbait, Hong Kong,
Dolphins don't clear off because there's a shark within a hundred miles, and the seals aren't likely to leave the shallow British waters. I'm inclined to believe this story.
Edward Avern, Berkhamsted, England
It is not the first time a Great White - if that is what the St. Ives fish was - has been swimming off the Cornish coast.
Former Mylor fisherman and expert shark hunter of 40 years experience, Robin Vinnicombe, who landed bucket loads of 10'+ Makos (the Great White's cousin) in Falmouth, once had a 7 hour battle with a massive Great White, just a few miles off the Lizard.
He would tell you pretty quick what kind of shark the St. Ives beast was, if you asked him.
P. I. Lemoine, Truro, Cornwall, Cornwall (GB)