The Great Cornish Shark Hoax

image Kevin Keeble stirred up a lot of excitement when he sent pictures to the Newquay Guardian showing a great white shark that he claimed to have spotted about a mile off the coast of Cornwall. At the time he said, "We were out about one mile off Towan Head and I saw this fin in the distance. We were reeling in the mackerel but I picked up my camera and caught a picture with my telephoto lens. The shark was about 100ft away. It was only there for a few seconds before it disappeared."

A shark mania ensued. Others sharks were spotted, but they turned out to be harmless basking sharks.

Now Keeble has changed his tune, confessing that it was all a hoax. He's told a rival paper that he actually took the photo of the shark, "whilst I was on a fishing trip in Cape Town and just sent it in as a joke. I didn't expect anyone to be daft enough to take it seriously."

So it's once again safe to go swimming in Cornwall.

Animals Places

Posted on Thu Aug 09, 2007


Comments

There was a theory, some time back, that what with gobal warming and so -on, the waters would soon be warm enough round Cornwall for Great White's, so it's not all that far-fetched. More believable than if he'd said it was off the coast of Scarborough. And there are already basking and tiger sharks there.

It's a shame it was debunked though. I was planning to go down to Newquay and reneact that bit on Jaws with the dog.
Posted by Nona  on  Thu Aug 09, 2007  at  07:06 AM
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