Pregnant Great White Shark Could Be Swimming To The UK

Pregnant Great White Shark Could Be Swimming To The UK….. So scream the newspaper headlines. Sounds like something from one of the many shark films being released this year doesn't it? Shark Movies Coming In 2021

With porbeagle and basking sharks already spotted closer to land than usual, it's now being mooted that this summer could be more Great White Britain than just Great Britain.

Of course newspapers love a good - or more often bad shark story - and there is something primal about sharks that just seems to fascinate us. Just look at the coverage as far back as 1916 during the Jersey Shore shark attacks, the first recorded in American history. It even knocked The Great War off the front pages: The First Summer of the Shark.

And now that media star is Nukumi, all 17 feet of her, and she has already passed the half way point and is estimated to be some 1,700 nautical miles away from the UK. Sounds a long way off, but she is now closer to the UK than where she set off from on the east coast of the United States two months ago.

The shark is being tracked by OCEARCH, it's chief scientist, Dr Bob Hueter, said: "She is capable of reaching the UK coast but we would not predict that she will do that, as white sharks are rare off the UK."

That's right, she isn't the first to almost end up in UK waters, that almost happened back in 2014. That time Lydia ended up in Portugal, which could also be where Nukumi ends up swimming to, or elsewhere in the Mediterranean. An area which is a regular haunt of Great Whites.

Sharks obviously sell papers and get those all important clicks, but some of the language used in shark coverage is risible, the media never afraid to paint the shark as monster in the water.

The Express leads with "Great white shark horror: Terrifying beast heading straight for UK – warning for swimmers". We think that with 17, 000 miles between the shark and said swimmers they are perfectly fine as they are. And note the use of beast and terrifying.

The Sun goes with the equally predictable "GET OUT OF THE WATER Terrifying 17ft great white shark could be heading for BRITAIN after ‘taking wrong turn’, experts warn."

Let's be clear the shark isn't lost, it's not the shark from Jaws the Revenge so isn't purposefully heading to attack Britain, it didn't set out to swim to us. And you know what, it still isn't terrifying.

I look at some more inflammatory shark language in the media, right about here:

Media's Feeding Frenzy on Shark Attacks

But have Great Whites already been here? Could Great Whites really survive in UK waters? Hardly a summer seems to go by without another 'confirmed sighting'.

Our resident real-life Matt Hooper (look, he has a beard and is a shark scientist), Kristian Parton, explored that very possibility for us earlier this year: Are Great White Sharks In British Waters?

Words by Dean Newman

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