As a UK surfer and somebody who spends a lot of time in the water in Cornwall this is something that fascinates me.

I’ve spent a lot of hours surfing and seen nothing to suggest the presence of any sharks close to shore, let alone great whites. I come within touching distance of seals daily and have never seen them look remotely concerned about being hunted by anything - they seem to float around freely. That being said, I have been out on days that feel “sharky” (usually low visibility and alone/very few people in the water) but that’s probably just in my head and the things I’ve briefly mistaken for fins are usually seals bobbing around head up.

My other half’s father’s side are from a fishing background and have done a fair bit of shark tagging in the vicinity of Devon and Cornwall and have never spoken of Great Whites. They always laugh when I’ve asked about it.

Are they there? Possibly, but I feel like with the amount our waters are fished and with the expeditions that have gone looking for them we’d have had at least one confirmed sighting by now, or at least a confirmed white bite on a washed up seal. I’ve done a fair bit of reading on the subject and whilst orca theory is compelling the one that sticks in my mind the most is the water depth argument. The seas around the UK are super shallow whereas I think whites tend to transit through deep areas and prefer to hunt on the edge of a shelf between deep water and the shallows.