A species of shark thought to be behind hundreds of attacks on humans has been sighted off the coast of Cornwall.
The harbour master’s office in St Ives confirmed today that two people on separate boats had reported seeing an oceanic white tip shark a mile offshore from the popular tourist destination.
According to the Western Morning News, one sighting was made by a fisherman who had fished off St Ives for 30 years, whose wooden boat was rammed by one of the sharks as he fished for mackerel.
A spokesman for the harbour master in St Ives said they were not “100 per cent” sure yet if the sharks spotted were oceanic white tips - blamed for many attacks on victims of shipwrecks and plane crashes at sea over the years - and stressed that people should not blow the reports “out of all proportion”.
The pelagic - or ocean-going - species is usually found far further south in deeper waters away from the coast, with Portugal being the usual northern-most reach of its habitat.