Are Great White Sharks In British Waters?

Are Great White sharks in British waters? This question has been a continuous debate

that has raged between UK fishers, scientists and the general public for many years.

The fascination with these ancient predators likely stems from terrified cinema-goers

exiting British cinemas in the winter of 1975/6.

A recent news article published by the Express donned the striking headline “Great white

sharks more than likely in British waters after sightings off UK coast”. Firstly, we all know

that this headline is designed to do one thing – get you to click on the article. Nonetheless,

might there be some truth behind the statement?

To put it briefly, yes. There is a definite possibility that, at points in time, there have been

Great whites visiting the waters surrounding the UK. However, the key words to focus on

here are “possibility” and “at points in time”.

Looking at the arguments for Great whites being in the UK, our waters are around the right

temperature for whites and there is a potential food source, namely our populations of grey

and common seals. A Great white was once caught in 1977, 168 miles off Land’s End in

Cornwall. More recently in 2014, a tagged white shark known as ‘Lydia’ was the first of her

species to cross the Mid-Atlantic ridge, although this is still over 1,000 miles off British

shores. On balance though, the conditions here in the UK are just about right.

However, looking at this from a scientific perspective, there is an inherent lack of strong

evidence for their presence here in the UK. There have been a number of unconfirmed

sightings, none of which have credible photo or video evidence to back up the claims. If

Great whites were regular visitors in our waters, there would be significantly more

evidence. Perhaps they would be being caught as bycatch in fishing nets? Or there may be

evidence of their attacks on seals, with carcasses displaying bite marks washing up on our

beaches? Or someone by now would have managed to get a high-quality photo or video? As

let’s be honest who doesn’t own some form of smartphone these days!

So, while there may be the odd occasion a great white has wandered into our waters, it is

highly unlikely that we have a population of Great whites living and feeding in our waters

regularly. Undoubtedly, if they were here, the media would go into a frenzy, however we

would be exceptionally lucky to have them.

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