Searching for Great Whites
IT'S fast, it's bright yellow – and it's about to stalk the shores of the Westcountry in search of sharks.
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, here comes a brand new and fully customised shark tagging boat.
The vessel is the brainchild of 57-year-old shark tagger Graeme Pullen, a writer and sport-fishing photographer of some 40 years.
He has invested heavily in the boat, the Hi-Sea Drifter, that is set to tag then release for research some of Britain's biggest sharks.
And where better to hunt the predators than in the waters off Devon and Cornwall?
Mr Pullen said: "Off the north coast of Cornwall the seal population has been doing well, and they are the staple diet of a white shark. I have always been sceptical of whites being there, but given the number of people in the surf there – all wearing seal lookalike black wetsuits – it could be dinner-bell time.
"I intend to fish for Mako shark off Falmouth as well, a cousin of the Great White, as this is the hotspot where they were caught years ago.
"They haven't been landed for about 40 years, but I just know they are there. It's just that nobody is fishing for them."
Such is Mr Pullen's skill at inserting dart tags that he once tagged a Bonnethead shark in the Florida Keys, flew back to England, then three months later returned to Florida and caught the very same creature, which was again released. A blue shark he tagged off the Isles of Scilly was later recovered off the coast of Venezuela in South America.
"It's important to get the sharks to the boat in as short a time as possible, and insert the tag at an inclined angle near the dorsal fin," said Mr Pullen. "If you think of the TV programmes where they dart and tag elephant, rhino and lion, it's simple as you just shoot them with a tranquilliser gun then walk up to a sedated animal and pop the tag on. Sharks have no swim bladder, so if you did drug them they would only sink to the bottom and drown.
"So the dangerous part is that I have to pull them in on rod and line, and do the whole operation 'live'. My pal Pete had a 20-stitch wound closed on his forearm after a bite from a 40lb lemon shark, and I had a visit to the mariner's hospital in the States after a 50lb stingray drove its barb two inches into my foot."
The serious side to the enterprise cannot be exaggerated.
Mr Pullen explained: "Sharks are under immense pressure from commercial over-fishing, and only by research like this from tagging programmes can science really learn what the true stock levels are."
4 Comments
by Ifor, Barry, South Wales
Friday, May 01 2009, 12:44PM
“During the summer of 2002, just beofre the Great White shark reporting by the lobster fisherman, I was rock fishing with my wife on the eastern side pentire point on Lundy Bay, there is a rock island approximately 1/3 mile off shore .at approximately mid - late morning the water was being "thrashed" by something out at sea not far from the shore of this island. During this surface activity a dorsal and tail fin was seen raisng above the surface. Unfortunately i did not have binoculars or a camera to record this event, which has all the similar traits of a shark feeding on its prey ,tearing at the body of. To estimate its size at the distance was difficult but the dorsal fin was somewhere between a man knee and mid thigh in length, the space between doral fin and tail fin is aprroximately 8-10 foot.
The event was curtailed by a pleasure cruiser coming out of Padstow, whether the skipper of the boat saw it , i dont know but that boat was a lot closer than myself.
That day certainly made an impression on me until now, i know i saw something significant.”
by adrian, new jersey
Sunday, April 26 2009, 8:43PM
“actually great whites are built to eat sea mammals, everything from their ambush techniques to the structure of their teeth makes them perfect for hunting mammals, sharks that are specialized to hunt fish have longer pointier teeth, not broad serated ones like a white shark, on top of that great whites are known to travel extemely long distances across oceans, some are known to travel from hawaii to the southern california coast up to alaska and then back to hawaii, that being considered along with the fact that the north eastern united states is a major breeding ground for great whites and that their favorite food, seals, is abundant in UK waters I would be surprised if there wasnt white sharks in british waters, I agree that there is no need to panic about shark attacks and that more focus needs to be put on basking sharks, which arent the largest fish in the sea whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) are, however if this guy wants to fund his own great white research vessel then why not, it could provide some interesting data on an amazing animal”
by Richard, Liskeard
Friday, April 24 2009, 8:57AM
“It is possible they could be anywhere .Allsorts of strange things turn up in Cornish warters .
If you need help on your new boat email me.”
by Lex, Canada (was in Brixham and Plymouth)
Friday, April 24 2009, 6:34AM
“This is such a load of hooey.
It happens every year; mass panic over another undocumented shark sighting.
There has NEVER been a reliable or validated great white shark sighting off the coast of the UK. They are a coastal species spending a lot of time in shallow waters near the surface so if they were 'here' then they would have been photographed / filmed and there would be more evidence of their presence.
Seals are not the 'staple' diet of white sharks, they primarily hunt large fish, and will opportunistically take large mammals.
An animals range is dictated by factors much more complex than food availability and water temperature. Seals does not equals sharks.
Further more Mr Pullen should really check his facts regarding shark attack statistics. These are very rare events indeed so I doubt any surfer needs to worry about dinner bells ringing. If Mr Pullen had done his research he would know that most leading scientists in the field believe that attacks on swimmers and surfers is not a mistaken predatory attempt but an inquisitive bite. The reasoning being that the physical nature of the encounter and the bite itself is far more 'low key' than a typical predatory event, coupled with the fact that great white sharks in particular have an remarkable array of excellent sensory capabilities. They would not make such a stupid mistake.
Even if white sharks were present around the UK they would not be the biggest - the largest shark in UK waters (the second largest fish in the world) is the basking shark, cetorhinus maximus. As an native species that is endangered we should stop concentrating on 'what if's' with white sharks and actually start to protect a species which is in dire need of our conservation efforts but which is sadly a little less 'glamorous'.
If Mr Pullen wanted to do more than fish for species which are barely seen in UK waters (one because it probably doesn't and never has lived here, the other because commercial and recreational fisheries have exploited a tiny residual population) he would be best to work with accredited researchers using satellite or sonic tags to track the movements of such elusive sharks. A visual id tag in a shark that's rarely seen is about as much use as a chocolate teapot.
And finally, great white sharks have been succesfully dart tagged for many years, using a simple pole to insert the dart by the dorsal fin as it swims past the boat. Rocket science it is not.
The fact that Mr Pullen tagged the same bonnethead twice in Florida, I would say is pure coincidence as far as we are concerned and rather bad luck from the sharks perspective.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, I hope you will consider my points and I am happy to address any questions you may have.”