Our shark-infested waters: what lurks beneath?

A great white shark has reportedly been seen “hunting” off the Cornish coast, plunging the population into Jaws mania. But he's not alone. Before you go in the water, MSN UK News brings you a guide to the razor-toothed denizens of the deep currently cruising British waters. You Have Been Warned.

Jaws, it seems, is back – and this time, he’s in Britain. The great white shark, immortalised in Steven Spielberg’s fearsome 1975 film, sparked a public feeding frenzy recently when it was “spotted” by a tourist less than 200 metres off the British coast.

Holidaymaker Nick Fletcher told The Sun how he saw "the 12 foot man-eater" – which can grow up to 20ft long and weigh as much as 5,000lbs – while he was videoing dolphins near the town of St Ives in Cornwall.

After seeing the footage of it leaping out of the water, Richard Peirce, chairman of the Shark Trust, said: "It clearly has a white belly like a great white and something about the way it breaches – twisting as it leaps out of the water – also suggests it is. I'm very excited at the prospect."

The hysteria that followed has since receded (slightly), with shark experts – including Richard – suggesting the footage showed not a great white, but one of its brethren, the basking shark. But the possibility of the world’s most infamous predator lurking just beyond our beaches has not been ruled out. And Jaws isn’t the only shark patrolling British waters.

Just when you thought it was safe to go in the water...

Great whites are, according to Richard, occasional “vagrant visitors” to our shores, but they are not a confirmed UK resident and, with the huge depletion the species has suffered, the chances of it being seen here are slim – unless global warming causes our sea temperatures to rise.

For now, however, there are around 30 species of shark native to British waters, with others – including the great white – occasionally straying into our offshore territory having got lost en route to somewhere else. They range in size from 40cm to 12 metres, and include filter-feeders and full-on predators.

The basking shark, Britain’s underwater behemoth, is frequently spotted frolicking off the coast. Not hard, considering its size: it can reach up to 12 metres in length and weigh as much as seven tons. The gentle giant of the shark family, this harmless plankton-eater is a victim of the over-hunting that decimated the shark population during the 20th Century.

Killed for its highly-valued gigantic dorsal fin (a delicacy in the Far East), the basking shark’s numbers were dwindling dangerously, but the Marine Conservation Society says a huge leap in the number of UK sightings – only one was spotted in 2002, but there were 37 sightings the following year – is a sure sign the population is starting to recover.

The swiftest man-eater in the seas

From the biggest to the fastest: the aggressive mako, which is Maori for man-eater, is the fastest shark in the world, with adults able to swim at speeds of up to 60mph in short bursts. They grow up to 3.9 metres long, weigh up to 1,540lb and have been known to attack humans – sometimes fatally.

Fishermen reported seeing several mako off the coast of County Durham in August last year and another angler, fishing for mackerel off rocks at Port Isaac in Cornwall, said a large mako grabbed a fish off his line less than 100 metres from the shore.

Highly prized by game fishermen, mako sharks are famous for their jumping ability: they have been known to leap clean out of the water and onto the decks of boats, biting the fishermen who hooked them. Experts, however, say the chances of attack are slim – especially here in the UK, where the mako has existed for tens of thousands of years without a single attack being reported.

Richard Peirce, chairman of the Shark Trust, said: "If you look at mako records since records began, it works out to one mako attack in the entire world about every 50 years. So the chances of being run over by a runaway pram are probably slightly greater.”

A very peculiar-looking predator

One of the strangest looking is the hammerhead, which can grow to more than six metres in length and has also been known to attack man. Only rarely seen in our waters, unconfirmed sightings of hammerheads have so far been reported in South Devon, Cornwall and Wales. In 2004, the head of one specimen washed ashore in Portreath Harbour, Cornwall – the first confirmed record of a smooth hammerhead shark in British waters for 140 years.

Blue sharks, by contrast, prefer the taste of squid and bony fish to human flesh. Growing up to four metres in length, the blue migrates into British waters between May and September and has been spotted in Devon, Cornwall and Ireland. One of the more common and globe-trotting sharks, the blue is frequently seen out at sea, but occasionally wanders closer to the shore.

Described by one online dictionary as “voracious”, the porbeagle shark is a British resident whose fin bears an unsettling resemblance to that of the great white, but the shark itself is actually much smaller and completely harmless (unless you’re a fish). Most of the sightings have been hundreds of miles offshore.

Shy creatures

Other sharks cruising along our coastline include the blackmouth dogfish, thresher shark and starry smoothhound. In deep water, sounding like the protagonists of a Beatrix Potter book, we have the frilled shark, bramble shark and sharpnose sevengill. But your chances of coming face-to-snout with them are extremely slim.

Despite their fearsome reputation, most sharks are shy, elusive creatures. Furthermore, 50% of our native sharks are endangered. The angel shark, also known as the monkfish, is now extinct in the North Sea. In other words, despite the recent hysteria, you’re unlikely to spot any species other than a basking shark unless you’re fishing or diving.

And if you are fortunate enough to catch a glimpse, fear not. As with most creatures, sharks are unlikely to attack unless provoked. Even then, many “attacks” are simply a shark’s way of exploring an unfamiliar object – which can be fatal with larger shark species because of their incredibly sharp teeth and the force of their jaws. So if something does take a nibble, don’t take it personally.

An article by Laura Snook, MSN UK News Editor

August 2, 2007

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not of MSN or Microsoft.

Also on MSN:

Great white "spotted" off the Cornish coast: would you go in the water?

Sharks: do they really deserve their fearsome reputation?

See video footage of the shark sighting in Cornwall