This years great White scare

[Cycling Naturalist]

Yeah.... right. About as likely as a clean TdF.

Steady on, bonj may know something that we don't - give him space to tell us more.

 

[mosschops2]

I remember in Hope Cove when I was a lad, back in the olden days, a fishing boat had a basking shark caught up in its net - a good 8 ft specimen. The fishermen were more worried about saving their net than the shark, but nonetheless, the two were eventually separated. My dad had to tie a rope around the shark, and pull it through the water in circles - about thigh deep, in order to get water flowing over its gills. It took about 10 minutes, then he felt it "kick", and then a couple of minutes later it swam away!!! Hero award!

 

[Alcdrew]

sorry...I was trying to post the video of the sighting but the link is weird...I've managed to track it down now, here is a better link of what actually happened off the coast of St. Ives:

You can't fool me, that's not Cornwall. The weather is far too nice.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

I remember in Hope Cove when I was a lad, back in the olden days, a fishing boat had a basking shark caught up in its net - a good 8 ft specimen. The fishermen were more worried about saving their net than the shark, but nonetheless, the two were eventually separated. My dad had to tie a rope around the shark, and pull it through the water in circles - about thigh deep, in order to get water flowing over its gills. It took about 10 minutes, then he felt it "kick", and then a couple of minutes later it swam away!!! Hero award!

hence the jesture in your avatar pic then mosschops2

 

[gavintc]

Steady on, bonj may know something that we don't - give him space to tell us more.

Well the Guardian is scoffing the story with a quote from the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2138125,00.html

"The Sun seems to run this story every summer. Just because parliament has gone into recess does not make this a great white shark."

 

[mosschops2]

hence the jesture in your avatar pic then mosschops2

ROFL!!! Actually that's the only pic of Moschops (the cartoon character) I could find!!!

 

[Cycling Naturalist]

Well the Guardian is scoffing the story with a quote from the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2138125,00.html

"The Sun seems to run this story every summer. Just because parliament has gone into recess does not make this a great white shark."

Yes, but I'd like some more input by bonj - particularly on the subject of the shoaling habits of great whites. Do they shoal like herring?

 

[Bigtallfatbloke]

My experience of Great Whites is that they stick close to the bottom and then race to the surface to kill often 'jumping' out of the water. The Shark in the Video does have a similar (same?) fin profile as a great White but it is hanging around on the surface (which is what baskng sharks do mostly)...so unless it had just killed, or was tracking something like a chum slick (or wounded animal on the surface) I'd suspect it was more likely a basking shark. A white shark will swim in a zig zag approach across a chum slick gradually narrowing in on the source, or like I said stick close to the bottom and wait for a sillouhette of a seal above before shooting up to the surface.
One thing in favour of a white shark (or mako or porbeagle) is the size between the fins which to me eye indicates a medium or small sized mackeral shark (Mako, porbeagle and white are all of the same family, mackeral feeders)...I would expect a baskng shark to have been larger and to have been moving much more slowly and steadily...not as erraticaly as the video shows.

As for shoaling vs. lone sharks...well I am not an expert, but it is suspected that whites hunt in small groups although lone animals are also common. They do not shoal in the same way that hundreds of hammerheads do for example.

Great Whites are a cold water shark and they gather around seal colonies like those at Seal island and Dyer island in South Africa. The Map on th esite I posted shows that their habitat does extend to southern UK waters, which contain both Cold water and seals.

So for my money I would say the likelyhood is that what was seen was a mako or porbeagle shark both of which are fairly common in our waters.

JMHO

 

[Aperitif]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2144220,00.html

 

[alecstilleyedye]

hence the jesture in your avatar pic then mosschops2

ROFL!!! Actually that's the only pic of Moschops (the cartoon character) I could find!!![/QUOTE]

strange but true

 

[mosschops2]

I thought Mako sharks were actually more dangerous than great whites??

And they only liked warm water....

 

[Mr Phoebus]

Sharks are soooo last year! 'Cock monsters' are a menace now.

 

[mosschops2]

Where did that thread go actually?? You'll have to bump it!!

 

[Bigtallfatbloke]

I wouldn't want to get to close to either a mako either. I did dive (in a cage) in Shark alley in Dyer island nr cape town. Scared the living shoot out of me.