A Great White shark hunting off England's coast?

A tourist has filmed what experts said could well be a great white shark 180 metres from a beach off England's south-west coast.

The huge sharks - which can reach up to six metres long and weigh 2,250 kilograms - are not native to the country's cool waters.

But in a front page story headlined "Great White Shark Off UK", holidaymaker Nick Fletcher told The Sun tabloid how he saw "the 12-foot maneater" while he was videoing dolphins near the town of St Ives in Cornwall.

The paper dubbed the shark the "Cornish Jaws".

After seeing the footage of it following the dolphins and crashing out of the water, Richard Peirce, chairman of the Shark Trust, 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."

Oliver Crimmen, fish curator at London's Natural History Museum, added: "It's definitely predatory and definitely big. I can't rule out a Great White."

How strong is the bite of a Great White shark?

EXPERTS will be able to determine the "bite force" of the Great White shark for the first time, after development of new technology.

Biologists at the University of New South Wales started to examine a specimen today, which was caught in a shark net off the Central Coast, north of Sydney.

The young shark, which has been nicknamed Blancito, would "have been in business for a while" and used its teeth for catching other marine life and fish, according to Dan Huber, who flew in specially from the University of Tampa, Florida for the dissection.

"It's the first time I've dissected one of these," Dr Huber said. "This dissection has been a long time in the making."

UNSW scientist Stephen Wroe, who is behind the development of the "bite force" measuring equipment, said that almost nothing was known about the bite force and skull mechanics of the Great White.

"This will allow us to discover the maximum bite capacity," Dr Wroe said. "It will help us design shark proof equipment, such as cages."

The project is a collaboration between the University of Newcastle and University of NSW.

Man escapes from the jaws of death!

A lucky fisherman had a brush with a great white shark this weekend off the San Mateo County coast, but escaped unscathed -- something that can't be said for his red kayak.

The attack on the nose of the small boat reportedly threw the victim into the water. He jumped back on and was able to get back to shore before his boat took on too much water, several witnesses said. Photos of the boat furnished by several other kayakers show several bite marks near the nose of the kayak.

Several kayak fishermen told The Chronicle that about 18 kayakers launched off Bean Hollow State Beach about 7 a.m. Saturday and split into two groups. The victim -- identified on the NorCal Kayak Anglers Web site only as Dan -- paddled north to a spot about a mile off shore, where he began fishing for rock fish with a handful of other kayakers.

"Everyone had been fishing for a while, for a good two, three hours," said John Dale, of Foster City, a member of the kayak fisherman's club. "From what he told me, basically he was fishing, and was adjusting a lure and all of a sudden he was thrown from his kayak into the water. When he came up, he thought he had been hit by a boat, but when he looked the shark was still on the front of his kayak, latched on, gnawing on the kayak. He thought about it for a second and decided he better get back onto the kayak, even though it was still on the nose."

Bean Hollow State Park Ranger David Augustine confirmed Monday that the attack was reported, though he did not have any further information.

"(Great white sharks) have been seen in this area, there have been incidences," he said of the state beach, which is located just south of Pescadero and about 17 miles south of Half Moon Bay. "It's nothing extraordinary."

Dale said the shark released Dan's boat soon after he climbed back in, but that he fell out twice more because his seat had become unpegged from the boat.

"I was in the general area and I was padding in and I looked to the left and saw him -- he was moving super fast. I said 'Hey, how'd you do?' and he said, 'I got a couple fish and a shark,' then pointed to the bow," said Dale. "I was like 'holy s -- !' then he came over and I got up next to him and helped him get the pegs back in."

A novice kayaker had helped pull the victim's boat in to where Dale helped him refasten the seat, Dale said. Then, Dan raced toward shore, he added.

"At that point Dan didn't know what kind of holes were on the kayak," Dale said. "He was taking on water because there were punctures on the bottom, so it's good he came in real quick."

California Department of Fish and Game marine biologist Carrie Wilson said she had heard of the attack but could not verify its veracity. However, she said it is not unusual to find great whites in that area this time of year.

"It is a time when we see them in shallower waters more," she said. "It isn't normal for them to be going for a kayak, but typically they follow the food source. Pinnipeds are their primary food source so if there are seals or seal lions around, they could have been looking for them."

Wilson also noted that Año Nuevo, a breeding area for elephant seals, is not far away. She said that shiny lures or bait, as well as an abundance of fish in the areas, could potentially have attracted a shark.

Wilson said that biologists don't know much about the behavior of great whites, but normally assume that they are hunting when they attack people. Such attacks are rare, she added. The last reported attack near San Francisco was when a surfer was bit by a great white off Dillon Beach in Marin County last December. The surfer was dragged underwater but only suffered minor bite injuries.

The sharks can grow up to 21 feet, but generally range between 12 and 18 feet in this area. The size of the shark involved in this weekend's incident is unknown.

Kayaker Doug Mar, who took photos of Dan's boat, said no one at the angler club has been able to get a hold of Dan since he left the beach Saturday morning.

"Either he's having post-traumatic stress or his wife has taken away all his fishing stuff," he said. "What I think is interesting is everybody thinks the sharks are looking for food ... but maybe they are sending us a territorial message to get out of their backyard."

Is the Great White shark possibly facing extinction?

Concerns over the declining shark population of Canada’s East Coast has prompted a survey to find ways to better protect the animals.

The Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Dartmouth, N.S., is doing the province’s first-ever shark survey, headed by scientist Steven Campana, who is in charge of the department’s shark research lab.

"We are working closely with the commercial shark fishery," said Campana. "We have laid out a series of locations up and down the East Coast."

Results collected this month will help map out the distribution of the sharks and also give a good indication of their numbers in local waters, he added.

Young sharks and females are captured and released and the mature females are implanted with satellite tracking tags that will hopefully allow the team to identify the animals’ birthing ground.
"If we can find the pupping ground and if it needs to be protected, then probably, that is what we would do," Campana said, noting shark populations worldwide are declining, some of them to an extreme point.

"It’s quite possible in our lifetime the great white shark will go extinct."

The porbeagle, commonly seen off Cape Breton and a cousin of the mako and great white shark, is a cold water shark.

Porbeagles average two metres in length and usually weigh about 200 pounds.

"Its population is definitely down considerably from when they started getting fished in the 1960s," Campana said.

The survey will give the federal Fisheries Department baseline data to monitor the sharks’ recovery.

"It is our understanding the quotas are low enough to allow the population to recover."

Campana said he regularly gets calls about shark sightings in Cape Breton waters, including an Ingonish resident last week who saw a couple of porbeagle sharks, probably feeding, just off shore.

The waters around Cape Breton also draw basking sharks and spiny dogfish.

Blue sharks can be found further offshore.

There was only one recorded shark attack and that happened off Fourchu in July 1953, when a boat was bitten and sank, dumping the two fishermen in the water.

The fishermen were not attacked but one man drowned attempting to swim ashore.

A tooth left embedded in the planking was identified as that of a white shark.

Sydney diver Ken Jardine has only seen three sharks during his regular dives at locations around the island, including an injured one that had beached itself at Little Lorraine.

Attempts to rescue it failed.

The most exciting sighting was a six-metre basking shark in St. Peter’s Bay when he was returning from a wreck diving expedition.

"We stopped the boat and it came toward us, about 10 feet away, very slowly," said Jardine.
"He was literally the size of a half-tonne pickup truck."

Shark fin soup vs. shark extinction

A conservation group has warned that sharks could be extinct within a generation unless people lose their appetite for shark fin soup, Reuters reports.

WildAid today called on the Chinese government to act to protect several at-risk species - including Basking, Great White, and Hammerhead - which face increasing pressure as the country's taste for the soup grows with increased wealth.

According to WildAid, the Chinese account for more than 90 per cent of the world's shark fin consumption, "traditionally served in soup at...wedding banquets and occasions when the host wants to impress guests with expensive dishes".

The organisation's executive director Peter Knights told a news conference: "These animals have been here for 400 million years and they may disappear in one generation, not to provide people with basic food, but for a solely luxury item."

WildAid president Steve Trent added: "Precisely the role China plays is one of unsustainable demand. The demand for shark fin soup as it now stands, and as it's set to increase, cannot be sustained by wild shark populations. This is a role where the Chinese government can show genuine global leadership and can help many other countries around the world that are extremely poor and less well resourced, to protect their shark populations."

According to a WildAid report in May: "Between 26 and 73 million sharks are traded globally each year, while reported world trade in fins has nearly tripled from 4,900 metric tonnes in 1987 to 13,600 metric tonnes in 2004."

Trent gloomily commented on the figures: "Recent research has proven that many shark species and populations have experienced precipitous declines over the past 20 years, some by as much as 99 per cent."

Concerns raised over Great White shark population

Concerns over the declining shark population of Canada's East Coast has prompted a survey to find ways to better protect the animals.

The Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Dartmouth is doing the province's first-ever shark survey, headed by scientist Steven Campana, who is in charge of the department's shark research lab.
"We are working closely with the commercial shark fishery," said Campana. "We have laid out a series of locations up and down the East Coast."

Results collected this month will help map out the distribution of the sharks and also give a good indication of their numbers in local waters, he added.

Young sharks and females are captured and released and the mature females are implanted with satellite tracking tags that will hopefully allow the team to identify the animals' birthing ground.
The porbeagle, commonly seen off Cape Breton and a cousin of the mako and great white shark, is a cold water shark. Porbeagles average two metres in length and weigh about 200 pounds.
"Its population is definitely down considerably from when they started getting fished in the 1960s," Campana said.

Campana said he regularly gets calls about shark sightings in Cape Breton waters, including an Ingonish resident last week who saw a couple of porbeagle sharks, probably feeding, just off shore.

The waters around Cape Breton also draw basking sharks and spiny dogfish. Blue sharks can be found further offshore.

There was only one recorded shark attack and that happened off Fourchu in July 1953, when a boat was bitten and sank, dumping the two fishermen in the water. The fishermen were not attacked but one man drowned attempting to swim ashore. A tooth left embedded in the planking was identified as that of a white shark.

Sydney diver Ken Jardine has only seen three sharks during his regular dives at locations around the island, including an injured one that had beached itself at Little Lorraine. Attempts to rescue it failed.

The most exciting sighting was a six-metre basking shark in St. Peter's Bay when he was returning from a wreck diving expedition.

"We stopped the boat and it came toward us, about 10 feet away, very slowly," said Jardine. "He was literally the size of a half-tonne pickup truck."

Great White shark goes all out for two fishing boats!

PAT McCarthy and his friends got more fish than they bargained for when a great white shark decided to pay their boat a visit off Ocean Reef yesterday morning.

But Mr McCarthy had the presence of mind to grab his camera and take some outstanding photos of the huge marine predator.

The fishermen were 15-20 minutes out from Ocean Reef about 10am when the shark surfaced and circled Mr McCarthy's boat and another boat for about 40 minutes.

Mr McCarthy said the shark bumped the other boat and splashed water onto its deck, but only swam around and beneath his vessel.

Pro Surfer has an encounter with Great White shark!

I saw a shark,” Lowe said (AUS - currently ranked 35 on the ASP tour). “Phil caught a wave and while the wave was feathering across from Boneyards, I saw it. It did a U-turn to head back and it was no dolphin, it had a girth on it. I saw its white belly and I’ve never seen one before, but I have seen them on the TV and that’s exactly what it looked like.”

“Lowe spotted a shark, claiming it was a great white and we know they are out there so I was sort of freaked out,” Burrow said. “I think they introduced a new rule today, if you see a shark, you wave your hands in the air, point at the water and head in. When the Beach Marshall gave me my singlet and told me to do that if I saw a shark, I was like ‘what!’ It was pretty freaky. I am glad I didn’t have to put my hands in the air that heat!”

Survivor of Great White shark attack will participate to Paralympic Games 2008

Achmat Hassiem, the lifeguard whose foot was bitten off by a great white shark during a life-saving exercise at Sunrise Beach last August, is hoping to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games.

Hassiem says he is still nervous about going into the ocean (duh), but the loss of his leg hasn’t slowed him down. He says he swims faster now than he did with two legs.

Another shark sighting!

Experienced surfers Richard and Paul Shannon of Atascadero believe they saw a large shark in the surf along San Simeon State Park about 7:30 a.m. Friday.

The men were surfing about 150 feet from the beach, directly out from the north end of the Santa Rosa Day Use parking lot. That popular Cambria surfing spot is near the southern end of Moonstone Beach.

State Parks is not closing ocean waters there to public use but instead will post signs soon to warn anyone entering the water that they should keep away from dangerous marine wildlife.
According to Ranger Rob Chambers, the signs will remain posted for five days, unless there are additional confirmed sightings near the shoreline.

Chambers said State Parks officials decided not to forbid swimmers, surfers and others from going into the water because “the sharks are in the area here all the time. This is just a sighting close to shore.”

It's the first such North Coast shark report he can remember during his nine years in the area.
Richard Shannon, 51, said he’s surfed since he was 15 years old.

“I’m 99 percent sure it was a shark,” he said of the large, black fin he and son Paul, 18, saw about 20 to 30 feet away.

“It was probably 2.5-to-3 feet out of the water, and it wasn’t ‘porpoising,’ or moving up and down, the way a dolphin’s fin would. It was slowly moving side to side in the water," the elder Shannon said.

“I yelled at Paul, ‘It’s a shark, get in as quick as you can,’” then the two men got out of the water. “We didn’t stick around to see the (shark’s) body.”

This is the third credible shark sighting along the San Luis Obispo County coast since June 27. The other sightings were at Port San Luis/Avila Beach on June 27 and Pismo Beach on July 3.
The Port San Luis Harbor District closed the waters at Avila, Olde Port and Fisherman's beaches for five days after the first sighting. The closure is mandated by a district policy instituted in August 2003, shortly after a great white shark bit and killed swimmer Deborah Franzman, 50, of Nipomo off Avila Beach.

Waters off Pismo Beach were not closed in the wake of the recent sighting there, though warning signs were posted on the beach.

Great White sharks sighted near California beach

Two Great White Sharks are spotted in local waters in less than a week.

A surfer reported seeing a six to eight foot long Great White Shark about 150 yards south of the Pismo Beach Pier.

The sighting was around 7:30 p.m. Saturday evening.

Pismo Beach Police say the waters will not be closed but signs will be posted warning people to enter at their own risk.

On Wednesday, a 15 foot Great White Shark was spotted swimming in the waters of Port San Luis, near Avila Beach.

Man swimming with sharks is his life!

A shark sighting Wednesday night at Avila Beach shuts off access to the ocean waters there.
The 15 foot great white shark was spotted swimming in the water near Port San Luis and the Cal Poly Pier.

The Harbor District implemented a five day restriction on the water in Avila.

For most people when it is known there is a shark in the water that means stay out!
But for one Shell Beach man it means time to get in the water.

Terry Lilley is a biologist who has studied sharks for more than 25 years.

He said the creatures are not the killing machines we think they are.

"The sharks know we're out there they have electromagnetic sensor. They can tell we're in the water from a mile away and when they sense us getting in the water they leave, so there is really nothing you need to or can do to protect yourself, just being a human is going to protect yourself," said Terry Lilley.

Of course, not everyone feels that way.

Some people are thankful Hharbor Patrol issued a warning and restricted access into the water.
"It's a good thing for the people who are out there swimming and the people who might be out scuba diving and doing other activities like that," said Shavahn Loux.

Lilley believes if you are swimming or diving in the water you are safe unless you are around other sea mammals.

That is what he said happened on the morning of August 19th, 2003 when Debbie Franzman was attacked and killed by a great white shark in Avila.

"She went into a group of seals. The shark came in to get one of the seals and bit her by accident," said Lilley.

Instead of restricting access to the water, Lilley said people just need to be educated about what is in it.

Officials with the Harbor patrol said after the summer they will revisit the policy for notifying the public about shark sightings.

They may begin to issue advisories instead of closing off access to the water altogether.

Great white shark sighting closes beach

The waters at Avila and Port San Luis beaches will be closed through Monday after a boater spotted a shark between the two piers around 7 p.m. Wednesday.

The beaches are open, but signs posted in the sand warn beach-goers of the sighting.

In August 2003, the Port San Luis Harbor District voted to close the waters off its beaches for five days anytime a credible shark sighting was reported. The decision came days after a great white shark bit and killed swimmer Deborah Franzman of Nipomo as she was swimming with seals off Avila Beach.