Rise Of The Shark

Increasing numbers of shark species are being found in British waters. Why is this happening, asks Ben Garrod – and where can we see them?

- Dr Ben Garrod

My lasting love of sharks was kindled the day I rescued one. Just 11 years old, I was on a deserted beach one cold Sunday morning, with my trusty terrier, Toby. There had been a high spring tide, leaving broad, shallow furrows in the sand. It was in one of these temporary channels that we spotted a fish thrashing desperately about.

I’d grown up on nature documentaries and had read every one of Gerald Durrell’s books, so I felt prepared for the task ahead. Worried that the water would seep away and that the shark would effectively suffocate, I waited until she was facing away (and yes, it was a ‘she’) and grabbed her tail. I felt her course sandpaper skin and the power in her muscular body, and flung her into the nearby surf, afraid of receiving some terrible injury from her jaws. It was over in seconds. As I saw her disappear back into the sea, I had never been so proud or felt as brave. I feel that my achievement should in no way become diminished simply because my shark was a small-spotted catshark and was only around 40cm long.

As well as introducing me to sharks and their flattened cousins, the rays, my rescue showed me that, like anything, sharks too could be vulnerable and needed our help. In my adult life as a biologist I’ve been lucky enough to meet some fantastic sharks. I’ve dived with majestic tiger sharks off Cuba, seen schooling hammerheads in the Galapagos and fallen in love with gentle leopard sharks on a Madagascan reef – but my love of sharks started here in the UK, and it is still ‘our’ British sharks that fascinate me most.

PLACE OF REFUGE