I am getting a serious case of déjà vu… Every summer, the mainstream tabloid media publish sensationalist crap about great white sharks stalking UK waters (never with any photographic proof, I might add) and other rubbish, and now it has started again.
The usual suspects – the Daily Mail and the Daily Star – have both run stories about basking sharks being sighted off the coast of Cornwall. Funnily enough, this comes as no surprise as basking sharks are often seen in these waters in spring and summer. However, why on earth do they have to lead with headlines like ‘Terrified tourists stalked by sharks off Cornwall coast’, and ‘This was the terrifying moment a shark was swimming just feet from a kayaker’?
Frustratingly, both publications, once they get this out of the way, go on to explain that basking sharks are harmless to humans! So why needlessly perpetuate all the negative press that sharks get anyway?
On a more-positive note, great news that basking sharks are back off the coast of Cornwall in April, it bodes well for plenty more sightings as the year progresses.
Photo credit: Stuart Philpott
