Britain8217;s great white hunters may soon become the hunted

LONDON, SEPT 1: Britain's Great White Shark hunters, now descending on Cornwall in shoals, may soon become an endangered breed. Marine bi...

LONDON, SEPT 1: Britain8217;s Great White Shark hunters, now descending on Cornwall in shoals, may soon become an endangered breed. Marine biologists are pressing to have the fish, Carcharodon carcharias, protected under strict international conservation laws.

Catching or harming a Great White would then become a criminal offence if the move is backed, as expected, at next year8217;s meeting of Cites, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. South Africa, California and Australia have already banned all attempts to catch or harm the creature that was so vilified in Steven Spielberg8217;s monster movie Jaws.

And the reason for these actions is simple: Spielberg created a monster of such venomous, fearsome proportions that trophy hunters round the world flocked to slaughter an animal that, in reality, attacks human beings only rarely. Jaws was made in 1975. At that time, the body or skeleton of a Great White was worth very little. Now, a good set of Carcharodon jaws can fetch up to 20,000.

8220;The Jaws myth has a lot to answer for,8217; said Ian Fergusson, chairman of the Shark Trust. 8220;Numbers of Great Whites have dropped alarmingly ever since and trophy hunting 8212; triggered by the film 8212; is the principal cause.8221; Last week8217;s glimpse, by the six-man crew of the Cornish fishing boat Blue Fox, is the most reliable observation yet made of a Great White Shark in British waters.

However, an authenticated sighting, one that involves a photograph or a specimen, has still to be made. Dr Fergusson rated the likelihood that they had seen the real thing as 8220;at least 90 per cent8221;, although other marine biologists are more doubtful. 8220;The Great White is a cold water creature, and these were relatively warm seas,8221; said Paul Crozier, of the Dunstaffnage Marine Laboratory. 8220;I think the crew may have seen a Mako shark which looks similar but which doesn8217;t have the same ferocious reputation.8221;

On the other hand, the detail reported by skipper Phil Britts and his crew is remarkablyconvincing. They spoke of a 15ft-long shark, dark on top and white underneath, that performed a characteristic 8220;half-roll8221; as it passed the Blue Fox.

8220;The Great White does this so it can have a good look at you,8221; added Dr Fergusson. 8220;It8217;s as if they are making a mental note about you and can leave you dumbstruck.8221; The spotting of the Great White off Padstow follows recent reports of several other strange fishy sightings off Britain8217;s waters, particularly those off Cornwall, Devon and South Wales, and raises the prospect that global warming may already be bringing strange marine tourists to our part of the world.

The Observer News Service