white shark Fancy finding you here: The tooth of the great white, discovered near Scotland, add to the evidence that the shark sometimes visits our shores

Fancy finding you here: The tooth of the great white, discovered near Scotland, add to the evidence that the shark sometimes visits our shores

Evidence that great white sharks used to roam the waters off Britain has been found - thanks to a huge tooth found embedded in a crab pot.

Shark experts believe that the huge tooth found embedded in the rope of a crab pot off port of Gairloch in Western Scotland belonged to the Great White shark, the species popularised in the 1976 thriller Jaws.

Richard Peirce, chairman of the Shark Conservation Society, said the latest discovery was the first conclusive evidence so far that great whites once patrolled the seas around the British Isles.

The find was a made by two fishermen, who - recognising its possible significance - immediately sent images of the part fossilised tooth to the Cornwall-based society for verification. 

Mr Peirce, who has examined more than a hundred claimed encounters with great whites in British waters, said: 'Of that number only eight remain credible. 

'That doesn’t mean these were definite sightings of great white sharks, but that the evidence remains credible. 

'Every report is investigated, every lead tracked down, and an interesting picture emerges because it becomes apparent that the credible sightings are in two distinct clusters: Cornwall and northern Scotland. And of those, the most convincing sightings have all been off Cornwall. 

'However, this tooth is extremely interesting because it is the first and only such record.'

Natural habitat: A great white, swimming through a school of fish, Neptune Islands, South Australia

Mr Peirce explained that on July 18 he received an email from Scottish fisherman Jody McNeil who said he had pulled up his creels two days earlier and discovered a shark tooth embedded in the mesh of one of them.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2198112/Stay-away-water--Tooth-great-white-shark-discovered-coast-Scotland-gives-evidence-killer-creatures-like-visit-UK.html#ixzz2C9JJp2sf
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