Sharking For Tourists
A SHARK is spotted off the cost of Cornwall. And, as the Mail reports, “the beaches started emptying within hours”.
That this mass exodus should coincide with flood and last-minute deals to the sun is less important than the massive beast in our costal waters.
The Star has journeyed to Cornwall’s shark alley and today exposes the “Great White Lie”. The “killer fish” is a “monster myth”. No Jaws. No teeth.
The 20ft fish is a basking shark, a harmless creature that allows children to pet it as it swims around a dingy.
Residents of Britain’s flooded zones can rest easy. But just when we think it is safe to go back in the water, we look again. Experts see a photograph produced by Kevin Keeble, 52, a keen angler. They see a Great White.
Mr Keeble sends his picture to the Newquay Guardian. The picture is published on the paper’s front page. Copies have “flown off the shelves”.
And Mr Keeble tells us: “I took the picture while I was on a fishing trip in Cape Town and just sent it in as a joke… I can’t believe the story went so big in the first place.”
The shark was front-page news in the Sun. Britain was going shark crazy, we were told.
But it was all a hoax.
And the Mail says the trick has upset locals who earn their living from the tourist trade. They are also upset by the rain, the clouds and those cheap flights to Miami.
And the man-eating tigers…
Posted: 9th, August 2007 | In: Tabloids Comments (2) | TrackBack | Permalink
