Der der, der der, der der, der der...Silly season is upon us again!

Every year without fail here in the UK we have the "Jaws off the Cornish coast" story but it's started a little late this year.

These stories always seem to materialise when the weather forecast for the next week looks good, that is, when summer looks like it might actually make its annual two week stopover in the UK because that is precisely the time us limeys don the string vests and tight shorts, inflicting our pasty (later burned to a crisp) skin on the world and head to the British riviera.

For those who can't be arsed to click the link, the long and short of it is that apparently two separate fishermen have been "attacked" by an Oceanic Whitetip Shark off the beaches of the beautiful St Ives in Cornwall. Funny thing is, it's usually a Great White but the Oceanic Whitetip seems to be the shark of the moment after its month in the spotlight in Egypt last year.

 

It's the same every year, fisherman says he's seen big shark, press splash it all over front pages after contacting Richard Peirce of the Shark Trust who quite rightly doesn't dismiss it outright, saying nothing can be confirmed until a picture is taken, a few days later a picture appears of a Basking Shark which is claimed to be the offending "man eater" and that picture is then debuffed as a Basking Shark by someone at a university or aquarium and the whole thing is over and done with.

That's not to say there haven't been some viable eyewitness accounts and evidence to back up the claim that large predatory sharks do visit the UK's coastline. I have been saying for twenty years that Great White Sharks do visit our shores but the Oceanic Whitetip? It's a stretch too far for me I'm afraid so I'm calling shenanigans on this one.

Call me cynical but you would struggle to find anybody in the country these days without a mobile phone and on top of that, a mobile phone without a camera on it. Is anybody seriously trying to say that not one but two fishermen saw an Oceanic Whitetip and didn't think to get a quick snap on their phones to back up their story? Not a chance as far as I'm concerned.

On the upside however, at least it looks like the weather is looking good for the next week or so!

Edit:

15/6/2011

As if to completely prove my point above, British tabloid newspaper, The Daily Express, are running this abomination of an article today and not only is it nothing more than a load of non-facts thrown together, the grammar is appalling, "a oceanic whitetip" I mean, seriously, come on!

My point above was these fabricated stories serve only one purpose and that can be proven with these passages in the article, "...Fishermen have booked out hotels in St Ives..." and "Hotel owners yesterday told of a “last-minute flurry” of customers desperate to hunt down the shark."

Crappy weather means less people booking UK breaks so in order to get the punters down there they make up a story of a once in a lifetime opportunity to see a "killer shark."

Yep, they really do think we're that stupid.