Great white shark feared to be stalking Britain coast after porpoise found with huge bite marks

A GREAT white shark is feared to be stalking Britain’s coast after a porpoise was found with huge bite marks.

Shark expert Mally Rice, 46, discovered the wounded mammal as he walked his dog along Talacre beach near Prestatyn, Flint in Wales on Friday.

Mally, who has been studying sharks for all his life, believes it was definitely caused by a bite and not inflicted by a boat

He said: “If you look at the crescent shape on the top, no propeller could cut in that shape.

“Maybe it’s a great white. Our waters are a lot colder but you never know.

“It could have been a porbeagle shark or a blue shark – can’t see anything else in our waters doing that.

"Even then it’s extremely rare that an animal the size of a fully-grown porpoise will be attacked in this manner by a shark swimming in British waters.”

Porpoise are similar in appearance to dolphins, and are very common off the North Wales coast

The dad-of-two added: “I was astonished to see what had happened to it. I’ve never seen it in British waters.”

Earlier this year The Sun Online revealed how Great White sharks could be hunting in British waters.

Academics said there's "no reason" the whopping creatures couldn't be swimming in the cold waters off the UK.

Officially, the closest confirmed report was a female captured in 1977 in the Bay of Biscay – 168 miles off Land's End.

National Geographic explorer Prof Yannis Papastamatiou, who grew up in the UK but now works at Florida International Uni, said hotspots for species of shark are Cornwall, Ireland and the coast of Scotland.

GREAT WHITE SHARK FACTS

Great White Sharks are usually 4.5m (15ft) in length

They are a blue-grey colour on the top of the bodies

Strong bodies and powerful tails help the marine mammals swim as fast as 35mph

They stay close to the surface of the water, so they can capture their prey more easily

Most of the world’s Great White Sharks live off the coast of South Africa

Their sense of smell is so good that the sharks can detect the scent of blood from three miles away

Great White Sharks have a whopping 230 teeth in their mouth – making just one bite fatal

He exclusively told The Sun: "Britain is arguably the best place in the world to see a basking shark, and porbeagles are quite common in the UK.

"Fishers do occasionally catch them.

"They're a close relation of the white shark.

"They are probably the species most frequently misidentified as a white shark, which is an understandable mistake."

While there have been no confirmed sightings of a Great White off the coast of the UK, the academic said: "There's no reason why they couldn't come here.”

"They are often found in areas where the water is just as cold as it is here. 

"We know they're in the Mediterranean."

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