Great White Sharks ‘more than likely’ in British waters after more than 100 ‘sightings’, fisherman and experts say
GREAT White sharks could be hunting in British waters - and there have been more than 100 sightings, fishermen and experts say.
Academics say there's "no reason" the whopping creatures couldn't be swimming in the cold waters off the UK.
And anglers claim to have spotted the beasts off the coast off Devon and Cornwall in recent years.
Officially, the closest confirmed report was a female captured in 1977 in the Bay of Biscay - 168 miles off Land's End.
But one Devon fisherman says it's "more than likely" - and claims friends have seen the sharks in our waters.
He said: "I've not seen one myself, but friends have."
National Geographic explorer Prof Yannis Papastamatiou, who grew up in the UK but now works at Florida International Uni, said hotspots for species of shark are Cornwall, Ireland and the coast of Scotland.
He exclusively told The Sun: "Britain is arguably the best place in the world to see a basking shark, and porbeagles are quite common in the UK.
"Fishers do occasionally catch them.
"They're a close relation of the white shark.
"They are probably the species most frequently misidentified as a white shark, which is an understandable mistake."
While there have been no confirmed sightings of a Great White off the coast of the UK, the academic said: "There's no reason why they couldn't come here.
"They are often found in areas where the water is just as cold as it is here.
"We know they're in the Mediterranean."
And Richard Peirce, former chair of the Shark Trust, said that of 100 claimed encounters with Great Whites in UK waters, around 10 per cent are 'credible'.
Experts at the trust said: "British waters do provide good conditions for White Sharks, so it's not impossible."
Meanwhile, the terrors of the deep could be much more commonplace off the UK as waters warm, one academic says.
Shark expert Dr Ken Collins said that in the next 30 years warmer conditions and availability of prey could make British waters an ideal hunting ground for the feared beast.
Dr Collins, of the University of Southampton, said: "You get Great Whites off the coast of South Africa where the water is colder than here and I see no reason why we should not have them in our waters.
''There are Great Whites in the Med, which isn't too far away and so I see no reason why they shouldn't be spotted here, particularly off the coast of Cornwall where there is an abundant supply of seals, their favourite food."
And in 2017, fisherman Graeme Pullen said a Great White was lurking off southern beaches - and could attack any moment.
Mr Pullen, who pursued the man-eater for two years, said: “Make no mistake, this is the big one.
“This is surely Britain’s first Great White."
Deadly killers could be swimming in UK waters
Fisherman claim to have spotted the sharks off the southern coast
Great White Sharks are usually 4.5m (15ft) in length
They are a blue-grey colour on the top of the bodies
Strong bodies and powerful tails help the marine mammals swim as fast as 35mph
They stay close to the surface of the water, so they can capture their prey more easily
Most of the world’s Great White Sharks live off the coast of South Africa
Their sense of smell is so good that the sharks can detect the scent of blood from three miles away
Great White Sharks have a whopping 230 teeth in their mouth – making just one bite fatal
He claimed the blood-thirsty killer has been sighted repeatedly off Hayling Island, Hants.
And he feared it could been returning to rich hunting grounds and gorging on seals and fish in shallow water.
He added: “The danger is this shark will eventually stumble across someone in a wet-suit and mistake them for a seal.”
In September, fisherman Rob Rennie, 49, caught the largest mako shark ever seen in British waters.
Rob found the 11ft beast - a cousin of the Great White - at the end of his line when it latched onto a piece of mackerel bait.
The keen angler reckons his catch was roughly 1,200lbs - smashing the current British record of a 500lbs mako shark from 1971.
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Rob, a charter boat skipper from Hereford, released the beast back into the sea after he caught it with five pals 35 miles off the coast of west Wales on September 7.
He said: "Makos are dangerous - probably on par with the Great White.
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"This one was huge.
"He was so big that we couldn't reel him in and had to actually drive the boat to him and pick up the slack."