Deadly shark attacks fisherman's boat off the coast of Cornwall

Holidaymakers in St. Ives, Cornwall may be interested to hear that a fisherman has told of a frightening encounter with a species of shark blamed for hundreds of attacks on humans.

The 60-year-old man's boat was reportedly rammed by the 7ft oceanic whitecap shark as he fished for mackerel off the coast of St Ives.

The harbour master's office confirmed that a second boat also reported seeing the shark about a mile offshore.

The fisherman described how he saw the distinctive white tip coming towards him: 'I was interested so I stood up to have a good look at it. As I was looking over the side of the boat, it just slammed into it.

'Then its head came out of the water by about a foot. It was that close to the boat that is slammed the side of the boat with its body and tail.

'It came as a bit of a shock. It was aggressive and we don't tend to have aggressive sharks in these waters.'

He added: 'I have been fishing in these waters all my life and I have seen all sorts, but I have never had a shark ram my boat.

'This was an aggressive shark. I was in a 16ft boat, but if I had been in a kayak it could have easily had a bite at my legs.'

A spokesman for the harbour master in St Ives said they were not '100%' sure if the sharks spotted were oceanic whitetips and stressed that people should not blow the reports 'out of all proportion'.

The pelagic - or ocean-going - species is usually found in deeper waters away from the coast, with Portugal being the usual northern-most reach of its habitat.

Richard Peirce, chairman of The Shark Trust, said the shark could have been of a different species, such as the mako or basking shark.

He told Sky News Online: 'Even if I decided to believe this angler's account completely, it's impossible to confirm without some form of evidence - a photograph, video, body, tooth or bone that we can extract DNA from.

'But it's very difficult even for an expert to identify.

'Oceanic whitetips usually survive in temperatures of between 18C and 28C.

'Even at the height of British summer, when the water temperatures reach 17C or 18C, it's right at the edge of what they can take.'

Matt Slater, curator of the Blue Reef Aquarium in Newquay, said the reported sightings were 'exciting'.

'It is fairly unlikely that one would come up here, but it is possible,' he said.

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