UK: Shark warning given as second mako spotted offshore

Swimmers in seas around Westcountry beaches have been advised to leave the water if they spot sharks, after fishermen made the second sighting of a dangerous Mako shark this year.

A group shark fishing off Bude in North Cornwall on Tuesday night saw what they believe was a Mako, a cousin of the Great White, jump clean out of the water barely 100 yards from their small boat near a swathe of popular tourist beaches busy with holidaymakers.

The boat owner, who asked to remain anonymous, has been fishing for fun for 20 years in the area and said he had made an "educated guess" that it was a Mako.

"It was definitely not a dolphin or a porpoise because it had a vertical tail fin, and it was too big to be a Porbeagle shark," he said.

"It was 150 yards away, there were four of us in the boat when we saw it leap completely out of the water.

"The other guys reckon it was about 15 feet long but I think it was more like 12, it was certainly huge."

The fact that it leaped from the water is a strong indicator that it was a Mako, as it is one of only a handful of sharks, including the Great White, to have this ability, and has been known to land on fishing boats as it reaches a height of 20 feet in the air.

Builder Alan Britton, who runs Bude Windows and Conservatories, was one of the fishermen, on his first trip shark fishing.

"It was a wonderful sight, it came crashing up out of the water before belly-flopping down, I'm glad I didn't try to land it," he said.

The group were just a few miles from Bude's Summerleaze and Crooklets Beaches as well as Widemouth Bay, which have been busy with surfers and tourists enjoying the hot summer weather this week.

Lindsay Holloway, shark expert at Newquay's Blue Reef Aquarium, said the risk of shark attack was minimal, but people should get out the water if one was spotted.

"The risk is very small," he said.

"They have been responsible for attacks but compared to Great Whites, Bull and Tiger sharks the numbers are tiny.

"They are a pretty rare shark and it is very unusual for them to come inshore as they normally live in deeper ocean waters."

On July 23, the WMN reported how 50 pupils at a surfing school had to be evacuated from the sea after a surfer spotted what he believed was a Mako shark at Gwithian beach, near Hayle, West Cornwall.

Sightings of Great White sharks, the species which starred in the film Jaws, were reported off North Devon in 2003 and North Cornwall in 1999.

Source: www.westernmorningnews.co.uk