Great white sharks swimming off Cornwall's tourist resorts?

Scientists want to search for great white sharks in Cornwall. The area is popular with tourists and surfers.

Are there great white sharks off the southwest coast of Britain? A research team hopes to find out next year. According to a report in the British daily newspaper “Times”, American scientists suspect that animals migrate north from the Mediterranean Sea in search of seals every year.

“We believe they are [die Haie] “Pass Brest in Brittany and Cornwall,” the newspaper quoted Chris Fischer, founder of Ocearch, a non-profit organization focused on observing marine animals, as saying.

Cornwall is considered an inland tip among surfers. Cornwall is also popular with tourists as a seaside resort because the water there is relatively warm due to the Gulf Stream compared to other areas along the Atlantic coast.

Other scientists, such as American marine biologist Greg Skommel, doubt that Fischer actually found white sharks there. In an interview with The Times, he said: “There are no great white sharks in Cornwall.

“They should be there, but they're not there, and we don't know why,” Skomal continued. That's why his colleague Fischer would be surprised to find one of the animals there.

Skomal was confirmed by British ecologist Georgia Jones. He said there was no evidence so far that great white sharks were hunting seals in the area.

Both researchers are supported by shark expert Alessandro de Maddalena. “The lack of reliable reports of white shark sightings in the area clearly shows that they are extremely rare there.”

In the Mediterranean, great white sharks sometimes congregate in areas with lots of bluefin tuna, he said. The number of copies “could be a few dozen or a few hundred.” However, there is no evidence that the animals followed the fish on their migration route to the Atlantic.

However, these are not powerful arguments for Osarch founder Fischer, the article continues. The reason no great white sharks have been recorded in Cornwall is because no one has ever looked for them. By next summer, “we hope to be there,” Fischer said.