The silly season
How should we respond to ridiculous summer stories about ‘ killer sharks ’ off UK Shores ? Paul Cox of the Shark Trust has some ideas ...
Monogamous squid ?
The recovery of a female giant squid has prompted speculation that the species may be monogamous . The animal was caught off the coast of Japan , and was found to have sperm packets from just one male giant squid in her body , which surprised researchers . It had previously been assumed that the squid are solitary creatures who would collect and store sperm packets from multiple males over time .
Well , we made it through another summer without anyone ( that we know of ) spotting a white shark around the UK ! The press gave it a good go with some fine speculation and a few scattered reports of “ fins ” popping up here and there . The most notable in 2021 was probably an incident in Bournemouth where , on 4 August , the beach was “ evacuated after a ‘ large marine animal ’ spotted in the water ”.
The ‘ large animal ’ became a ‘ shark ’ and before long was being reported as a ‘ large shark ’. Cue images of white sharks superimposed over pics of Bournemouth beach and the usual halfinformed annual debate about sharks in British waters .
Don ’ t get me wrong , it ’ s nearly always great to hear about sharks in the news . And don ’ t get me wrong , there ’ s some really good , balanced and sensible reporting sparked by these incidents . And ( perhaps over optimistically ) I sense a bit of a shift , particularly with local reporters , wanting to go beyond the easy headlines . But , lurking in the shallow waters of the red-tops , we ’ re still seeing the same old nonsense .
What can we do about it ? Moaning isn ’ t going to work . And going into denial mode often only serves to give more air to the stories that we ’ re trying to counter . So , it falls on each and every one of us that do value sharks to play our part . What I think will work ( eventually ) is maintaining a positive stand . We ’ re incredibly lucky to have so many ‘ large marine animals ’ in our waters . Despite our best efforts to wipe them out with fishing nets . Let ’ s continually celebrate each and every one of them – not in our echo chambers but wherever we can be heard . Let ’ s keep opening up the conversation about sharks . Talk less about what MIGHT be here and more about what IS here . While some people wrap their chips in sensationalist half-truths , others are out there paddle-boarding with basking sharks ; snorkelling with blues ; witnessing threshers leaping from the water .
British sharks , like all of the world ’ s sharks , are diverse , fascinating and – guess what – in the sea . The more we talk about that , the more we celebrate them , the less purchase silly stories will get when they come up for air . Don ’ t get mad , get even .
Oh , and if anyone actually does spot an unusual shark , do take a photo . It would save us a whole lot of speculation .
www . sharktrust . org concern they would get stranded again .
Eventually they turned around and left the Cromarty Firth into the wider Moray Firth , but five dolphins have since been found washed up dead in the area .
According to BDMLR , these dolphins appear to be an offshore group , and are not from the well-known resident population of bottlenose dolphins in the Moray Firth area , as none have been identified from photos in the local ID catalogue .
Blue shark off Cornwall 41