GREAT WHITE ARE ON THERE WAY?

[Guest challenge]

Have you read this?

http://www.fishupdate.com/news/fullstory.p...ppearance_.html

Think you might have to get bigger boats lads.

Regards.

[mr motorola]

Have you read this?

http://www.fishupdate.com/news/fullstory.p...ppearance_.html

Think you might have to get bigger boats lads.

Regards.

Ah ....we've nothing to worry about on the Chieftain mate, you just make sure that your knife is nice and sharp for 2007

 

I've a feeling it's gonna be a bumper year!!!

 

See you soon John

[n4lly]

Total BS, there is nothing here for them to feed on, the commercials got rid of that.

I'll give you 100-1 on a 20 lb Bass, rod and line from the shore, think about it

[n4lly]

Total BS, there is nothing here for them to feed on, the commercials got rid of that.

I'll give you 100-1 on a 20 lb Bass, rod and line from the shore, think about it

 

If Totesport, gave a Million-1 you might have a punt with a quid, if Totesport gave odds of

10-1 would you bet 100,000 ? so they plumped for 25-1 to try to draw in some suckers

 

Someone trying to draw in some big buck paying GW game fishermen?, Jeesz the Whitby

crew will be fixed with out riggers trolling for tuna next

 

[chesters1]

they and many others have been here in the past in warmer times so the odds are they will again ,plenty of teeth at highcliff when the temperature was a lot higher than it is now and crocs frolicked there too.

whats warm now is decidedly chilly to past times and when its cold now its a heatwave to ages past

[Norrie]

This makes for decent reading ......

 

http://www.sue-jeri.demon.co.uk/gws.htm

 

 

and I would think they're qualified to give a decent answer to the question..... :D

[Norm B]

Have you read this?

http://www.fishupdate.com/news/fullstory.p...ppearance_.html

Think you might have to get bigger boats lads.

Regards.

25 to 1 seems to be a very miserly offer considering the likelyhood, or lack of likelyhood of a GWS being landed off UK beaches. Do they say how far off UK beaches, 50 + miles from Alderney maybe?

[Topecatcher]

Jeesz the Whitby crew will be fixed with out riggers trolling for tuna next

 

 

 

Already tried that on chieftain

[PanamaJack]

Um…. I suspect, as someone else has already suggested, yet another clever way for ‘bookies’ to generate income from the gullible.

 

But there is an underlying question in the thread. Do they visit our waters?

 

Although possibly not the best of presented documentaries there was that program on BBC that examined some of the potential sightings and, of course, mis-sightings. Some, certainly to my mind, appeared credible.

 

And I also recall recounting, to one of the program’s researchers, a conversation I’d had with one of the legendary Cornish shark skippers, Robin Vinnicombe of the Falmouth-based Huntress, about an ‘incident’ back in the 60s. It was in response to a question ‘And what’s the biggest shark you’ve seen?’

 

Robin described what, initially, was an uneventful day off the Manacles with a group of holiday-makers. They’d hooked up a fish that came relatively easily to the side of the boat and, in Robin’s words, ‘it was longer than my dingy (14’) and had an eye like a compass binnacle’. He took the trace and the fish just tracked along the side ‘just like a big dog on a lead’. But it hadn’t fought. Robin picked up the flying gaff and decided, rather than gaffing it, to poke it with the back bend of the gaff head in the eye.

 

The fish powered away and, 3 ½ hours later, bit through the heavy cable trace. ‘What was it?’ Perhaps too canny a Cornishman and perhaps also frightened of ridicule Robin just shrugged his shoulders, he didn’t know. (BTW Robin had caught both Makos and Porbeagles in UK waters.)

 

Whether the researcher managed to contact Robin, or whether he is in fact still alive, I’ve no idea.

 

Food for thought? Well obviously it’s not going to convince the sceptics. But is it just another piece in a complex jigsaw? I don’t know, but am firmly of the opinion ‘never say never’.

 

How can we prove it though? Well I’ve reproduced below is something I penned for our Club magazine that describes recent research using intelligent satellite tags. Would they offer proof - either tagging fish from the Mediterranean or those off the East coast of the ‘States?

Dave

 

Great Whites are usually found in temperate offshore waters ranging from places like California, South Australia, Southern Africa & the East coast of the ‘States, and have most frequently been tracked around seal and sea lion colonies – these, together with tuna, appear to form the basis of their diet. And scientists have, for a long time, perceived them as creatures that hunt in a narrow band of coastal waters, rarely venturing far from shore.

 

But those theories have, over the last several years, been turned completely on their head given latest research using pop up, archival satellite tags. It appears they can be true ocean wanderers, swimming thousands of miles into the open ocean on mysterious migrations.

 

Firstly there’s the research conducted in 1999/2000 by scientists from the University of California in conjunction with those from Stamford University. They tagged six adult sharks as they fed near seal rookeries in California.

 

Initial data on the sharks' movements confirmed that they remained close to shore during the North American autumn, arriving at California seal habitats just as young elephant seals gather -- making them easy prey. And during this period, the tagged sharks rarely dove more than 90 feet below the surface and remained in temperate waters ranging between 50 and 57 degrees Fahrenheit.

 

However the surprise came in the winter, when four of the tagged sharks headed away from the coast.

 

One male shark migrated all the way from the Farrallones, off San Francisco, to near the Hawaiian island of Maui - where great whites have been rarely sighted - travelling at least 43 miles per day and remaining in the warm Hawaiian waters until the Spring. It then swam all the way back.

 

Three other tagged sharks migrated to subtropical waters in the eastern Pacific hundreds of miles west of Baja California, and then remained in the open ocean for months.

 

However there was more recent and extensive research undertaken in South Africa starting in 2003. Wildlife Conservation Society scientists, coupled with colleagues from the Marine and Coastal Management Department of South Africa & the White Shark Trust, as part of a major research project, tagged thirty two Great Whites. Interestingly they followed at least three different migration patterns, including wide-ranging coastal trips up and down the eastern side of South Africa. But the one of greatest interest was that of a female that the scientists nick-named Nicole, after Australian actress and white shark lover Nicole Kidman.

 

Any rate the epic saga started with Nicole being tagged on 7th November 2003. She then, after initially tracking south, turned purposely eastwards. And, during her journey, although she took frequent plunges to depths as great as 3,215 feet - a record for white sharks - while crossing the Indian Ocean, she spent most of her time swimming along the surface. Her course has led researchers to suspect that Great White sharks may use celestial cues for trans-oceanic navigation.

 

Then ninety-nine days after being tagged, as Nicole cruised a mile from the shore just south of the Exmouth Gulf in Western Australia, her tag detached and floated to the surface with all of her secrets. This leg of the journey alone - some 6,897 miles - was one for the record book. But when Nicole's distinctively notched dorsal fin was sighted again on August 20, 2004 back in Gansbaai, South Africa, this intrepid Great White had completed, in just less than nine months, a migration route covering more than 12,400 miles.

 

Latterly though Australian scientists having been tagging sharks in South Australia and identifying seasonal migrations that take them as far as southern Queensland and North-West Western Australia. North-Western Australia? The graphic on this web site - http://www.cmar.csiro.au/research/sh...movements.html - clearly shows them in the same area as Nicole. I know the sample sizes are minute but, I wonder, are they exploiting the same food source, or aggregating as part of their breeding cycle?

Edited January 1, 2007 by PanamaJack

[nick]

what, someone got rid of all the seals?

 

That's a Great White prey species over all it's known range. And as we have a larger seal population than at any previous time I suspect there may be an odd snack around for a shark or two.