Great white sharks are among the most feared predators on Earth.
They strike terror into the hearts of swimmers who have been conditioned to fear them over the years as a result of frightening film and TV portrayals.
The animal is synonymous with the 'duh duh, duh duh' sound, but in actual reality, British beachgoers have nothing to worry about.
However, just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...
According to the marine experts at Ocearch, they could end up in UK waters in the near future.
Probably the happiest a great white shark can be, chomping away at a lovely humpback carcass. You can almost feel the power in its jawspic.twitter.com/890R7vp5Rb
— Debbie_banks (@Debbie_banks30) July 5, 2023
Tracking investigations showed that the creatures have started to regularly swim north as they search for food, being spotted on the United States’s New England coast more and more in recent years.
Before the 1970s, Cape Cod, a peninsula in Massachusetts, had virtually no great white sharks, but the area has seen a rise in the number of great whites near its shores in the past 50 years.
Experts have surmised that this is due to the number of seals that have migrated towards these regions.
The US Government’s efforts to protect the seals have in turn helped great white's to thrive, as seals are one of the key sources of food the shark depends on.
The Ocearch team are hoping to visit the UK next summer and expect to locate some of the vicious predators in British waters.
Great White Sharks in the UK
Talking to The Times, the research group’s founder Chris Fischer said: “We believe they should be moving up past Brest [in Brittany, France] and Cornwall”.
However, marine biologist Gregory Skomal disagrees with Ocearch’s theory, sharing that there have been zero great white shark spottings around Cornwall. He explained: “They should be there but they are not and we don’t know why.”
According to the University of Plymouth’s records, however, great whites have been spotted around the UK since 1965, with nearly 100 credible but unconfirmed sightings being noted in the last decade.
Incredible power of the Great white shark 🦈🦈🦈 pic.twitter.com/uIVYoGcH7W
— Scary Underwater (@terrifyingclip) July 7, 2023
Great white sharks are most commonly found around the coastline of California, Hawaii, and the Gulf of Mexico, as well as in Australia and South Africa. They are predators that are known for swimming great distances to get to food and are said to be able to smell a drop of blood in one million drops of water.
The shark is also known to prey upon a variety of other animals, including fish, other sharks, and seabirds. It has only one recorded natural predator, the orca.
Previously, scientists have warned that climate change, which contributes to rising ocean temperatures, would force the species to migrate and end up off the UK coastline by 2050.
Experts believe the species, previously rarely seen in British waters, are making UK shores their full-time home.
Rest assured - somewhat - that humans are not their preferred prey.
Although, nevertheless, they are responsible for the largest number of reported and identified fatal unprovoked shark attacks on humans.
For all captains of our shores, well, you know the line.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel