j.m@talk
08-05-2007, 12:39 PM
Just When You Thought It Was Safe...
By Alex Watts
Sky News Online
Wednesday August 01, 2007
Is this the photo the Cornish tourist industry DID NOT want you to see?
http://static.sky.com/images/pictures/1568591.jpg
Kevin says he took this snap of a
great white a mile off Newquay
A fisherman claims to have snapped a great white shark near the UK surfing capital of Newquay.
Kevin Keeble, 52, was one mile from the coast when he spotted a large dorsal fin 100ft from his boat.
He told his local newspaper: "I've been fishing off Newquay for 25 years and I've never seen anything like it. I've seen porbeagles, basking sharks, bull sharks - but this was something else."
Kevin, who works as a doorman at the Sugar Lounge club in Newquay, said both he and the skipper of his hired boat saw the maneater during a fishing trip two weeks ago.
The father-of-two said he decided to come forward and give the photo to reporters after headlines in recent days about other alleged great white sightings in Cornwall.
He told the Newquay Guardian: "We were out about one mile off Towan Head and I saw this fin in the distance.
"We were reeling in the mackerel but I picked up my camera and caught a photo with my telephoto lens.
"The shark was about 100ft away. It was only there for a few seconds before it disappeared."
The photo was shown to shark expert Doug Herdson, from the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth.
http://static.sky.com/images/pictures/1568592.jpg
Basking shark - or great white?
He told Sky News Online: "It definitely is of a Great White shark, but there's nothing to tell where it was taken."
He believes it is "very unlikely" there are great white sharks off Cornwall - simply because the sharks are so rare, with so many killed each year.
But he believes the maneaters used to hunt in UK waters 200 years ago, when they were more prevalent.
He said the most northerly confirmation of a great white shark was in La Rochelle, France, in the 1970s, when one was found in a fisherman's nets.
The expert told Sky there had been three recorded shark attacks in Britain - but all of them took place after the shark had been caught.
He said there were no official confirmations of any unprovoked attacks.
http://static.sky.com/images/skynews/furniture/skynews_logo.gif
By Alex Watts
Sky News Online
Wednesday August 01, 2007
Is this the photo the Cornish tourist industry DID NOT want you to see?
http://static.sky.com/images/pictures/1568591.jpg
Kevin says he took this snap of a
great white a mile off Newquay
A fisherman claims to have snapped a great white shark near the UK surfing capital of Newquay.
Kevin Keeble, 52, was one mile from the coast when he spotted a large dorsal fin 100ft from his boat.
He told his local newspaper: "I've been fishing off Newquay for 25 years and I've never seen anything like it. I've seen porbeagles, basking sharks, bull sharks - but this was something else."
Kevin, who works as a doorman at the Sugar Lounge club in Newquay, said both he and the skipper of his hired boat saw the maneater during a fishing trip two weeks ago.
The father-of-two said he decided to come forward and give the photo to reporters after headlines in recent days about other alleged great white sightings in Cornwall.
He told the Newquay Guardian: "We were out about one mile off Towan Head and I saw this fin in the distance.
"We were reeling in the mackerel but I picked up my camera and caught a photo with my telephoto lens.
"The shark was about 100ft away. It was only there for a few seconds before it disappeared."
The photo was shown to shark expert Doug Herdson, from the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth.
http://static.sky.com/images/pictures/1568592.jpg
Basking shark - or great white?
He told Sky News Online: "It definitely is of a Great White shark, but there's nothing to tell where it was taken."
He believes it is "very unlikely" there are great white sharks off Cornwall - simply because the sharks are so rare, with so many killed each year.
But he believes the maneaters used to hunt in UK waters 200 years ago, when they were more prevalent.
He said the most northerly confirmation of a great white shark was in La Rochelle, France, in the 1970s, when one was found in a fisherman's nets.
The expert told Sky there had been three recorded shark attacks in Britain - but all of them took place after the shark had been caught.
He said there were no official confirmations of any unprovoked attacks.
http://static.sky.com/images/skynews/furniture/skynews_logo.gif