Shark sighting a white lie

2007-08-09 13:05

London - Claims that a Great White shark had been seen off the England's south-western coast have been exposed as a fake, after the holidaymaker who claimed he saw the fearsome maneater said it was a sham.

Kevin Keeble's photograph of a menacing-looking fin poking out of the water sparked Jaws mania around the county of Cornwall, with the story getting massive coverage as newspapers went into a feeding frenzy.

But the nightclub doorman said his snap was just a great white lie and he actually took the picture in South Africa, and not at St Ives in Cornwall.

"I took the picture while I was on a fishing trip in Cape Town and just sent it in as a joke," he told the Newquay Voice newspaper. "I didn't expect anyone to be daft enough to take it seriously.

"I can't believe the story went so big in the first place. I didn't even get any money out of it. If I'd have made a few quid then maybe I could have gone on another fishing trip to South Africa."

The odd porbeagle and harmless giant plankton-eating basking sharks have been seen off Cornwall and there was already scepticism among marine specialist to the claims.

- AFP