A video shared online might just show a great white shark hovering in the waters off the west coast of Scotland, giving some kayakers a real fright in the process.
Take a peek at the video below and see what you reckon.
They’re one of the world’s most feared predators and the worst nightmare of anyone floating around in the sea with an anxious mind, but usually those in British waters can float freely and safe in the knowledge that great whites aren’t spotted anywhere near us.
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However, this video – which was shot in 2012 but is being analysed again with fresh eyes now – might just prove otherwise.
As you can see, the wee kayak is bobbing around on some fairly choppy waters off the coast of the Isle of Mull when a large animal can then be spotted in the water next to it.
Despite seeming fairly chilled out, the animal then dives underneath the boat and swims off.
Also – watch a little closer – did it seem to be munching down on something, or are we all just reading too much into that?
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The first thing to note is that this could be any number of sharks that are known to exist in the waters around the UK, including the harmless basking shark, which is huge but doesn't attack humans, and the mako shark and porbeagle, which while looking fierce aren’t particularly a danger to humans either.
Anyway, whilst it would be really easy to pass this off as just a sighting of one of those sharks, some knowledgeable folks have had a proper look with an open mind and many don’t seem to think this is just the kind of shark we’d expect to see.
Amongst them is YouTuber Islander Outdoors, who released his own video on the matter this month, highlighting the shape of the creature’s fin and the perceived shape of the front of it as indicators that it could be a great white.
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After all, there’s no reason they couldn’t come into our waters, they’re giant oceanic nomads that could easily slip into our waters and find food and a home there.
But – as the YouTuber points out – the water seems to be quite choppy and the footage isn’t that great, so we haven’t got any decisive proof here though.
Posting in the comments, Islander Outdoors said: “This might be a basking shark I tried to enhance the footage to see gills/dorsal to nose distance but it wasn’t good enough to determine!
“Anyway, for some fun I’ve put it out there for you to decide amongst yourselves.”
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Which – it turns out – plenty of people wanted to do anyway.
One said: “I emailed my retired shark biologist friend in Tahiti about this video, and he said that that shark was definitely a great white shark.
“This backs up that other video of British biologists who claimed they had seen a GW net to them off the west coast of Scotland. Seems to be confirmed.”
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Another armchair expert said: “I have been pretty much obsessed with great whites in UK since I was 7 and have studied and analysed so many different sightings and I have seen some extremely convincing and compelling evidence, but this is by far the best footage I've seen in a long time.
“I will confirm that this is NOT a basking shark. It is a large predatory shark. It has a fish in its mouth that you can see it chomp down on and then get spooked by the kayak.
“It's that biting motion that confirms this to not be a basking shark."
“If I had to put my ‘all or nothing’ on this, I would say that this is a juvenile GWS possibly a seasonal visitor taking advantage of the large seal population.
“The dorsal fin matches that of a great white and I have scanned this biting motion frame by frame and zoomed in and enhanced the images and I can basically confirm that this is most definitely not a basking shark but a great white shark eating and swallowing a fish.”
Once again, we can’t be sure, but it’s definitely a compelling bit of video, right?
Tom Wood