Shock ... Great White shark - a british smile
Shock ... Great White shark - a british smile
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SHOCKED tourists told of their terror last night over the Great White shark sighting off Cornwall.
And one holidaymaker said: “This has got to be every swimmer’s worst nightmare.”
The Jaws alert was raised after stunned dad Nick Fletcher filmed the fearsome fish just 200 yards from a beach in St Ives.
He was videoing dolphins and only realised the killer shark was hunting among them when he watched the footage at home.
Last night Britain’s leading shark expert Richard Peirce confirmed the 12ft creature was definitely a predatory shark and there was every chance it was a Great White — immortalised in the 1975 Steven Spielberg movie Jaws.
Excited Richard, chairman of the Shark Trust, spoke out after studying Nick’s astonishing film.
He 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.”
But Richard, 58, warned tourists to brace themselves for mass evacuations if the shark reappears. He said: “If a Great White is in the sea close to bathers, lifeguards have orders to clear the beaches.”
Oliver Crimmen, fish curator of the Natural History Museum, said after studying the video: “It’s definitely predatory and definitely big. I can’t rule out a Great White.”
Nick, a local government officer in Rotherham, South Yorks, was holidaying with wife Michelle, 38, son James, four, and baby Laura when he shot the film last month.
He was standing with his kids above Porthmeor Beach when he first saw the dolphins playing.
He said: “I got my camcorder and started filming. It was really lovely as dolphins are so graceful.
“You can see them at first loping out of the water. Then this shark with what seems a huge mouth, leaps out, crashes down and disappears. It’s incredible.”
Basking sharks, which can grow to 36ft, have become a common sight off Cornwall in recent years. But they are totally harmless.
By contrast Great Whites, which can reach 20ft, have been responsible for a string of attacks on man.
In 2004 a Great White ripped apart a surfer off the Australian coast. A year earlier, a woman swimmer was killed in California.
Tourist Nick Martell, 57, from Newcastle upon Tyne, said after the sighting: “Coming face to face with a Great White is every swimmer’s worst nightmare. It’s not the sort of thing you expect in Cornwall, but now I know it’s possible I’ll definitely be on the lookout.”
Londoner Louise Tilbury, 32, said: “I’m terrified of sharks. I’m not sure I’ll be swimming.”
John Stewart, 33, from Bristol, said: “Everyone knows how ferocious Great Whites are. It’s the last thing I want to find in Cornwall.”
