Falmouth coastguard received a report from John Paul Southgate that he and his dive buddy had spotted a great white shark while diving off Pendennis Point, Cornwall.

The divers, both believed to be Royal Navy marines, were diving in poor visibility at Pendennis Point at 8pm on Tuesday 17 August. During their ascent, at a depth of 5m, Southgate saw what he at first thought was a boat coming towards them, but it turned out to be a shark.

The shark is described as white in colour, 3 metres in length, and both divers are adamant that it was not a basking shark - commonly sighted around the Cornish coast.

Both divers surfaced immediately, in a state of shock, and reported what they had seen to their dive marshall.

The Coastguard passed information about the sighting on to the Cornish Wildlife Trust. A spokesman for Falmouth Coastguard told Divernet that no other sightings of the shark had been reported.

There have only been 3 reported shark attacks on divers in UK waters, none fatal. There have been no attacks by great white sharks in UK waters; sightings are extremely rare and reports are usually unconfirmed.

More links of interest
Swimming with sharks
Fact or fiction - are there great white sharks in UK waters
Shark attack statistics, Europe


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