After a horrific shark attack on a swimmer in Cornwall just a few weeks prior, families fled the sea in fear last week after a shark “fin” was spotted off the coast of Kent.
According to The Sun, the alleged encounter occurred barely 150 feet (or 45 metres) off the shore, when kids were out for a nighttime paddle.
When two boys first saw the fin, one of them exclaimed, “Is it a shark?”
They quickly returned to the sand on The Warren beach in Folkestone along with several other people in the water.
Emma Horne, a 30-year-old mother, told the Sun that she was at the beach with Finley, 7, and Alby, 5.
She was able to get video of what seemed to be a basking shark fin circling the coastline.
I issued a warning, and a lady immediately called her dog from the water. She felt anxious.
Finley and Alby were fiddling with their nets when we instructed them to go and stood back to observe. They requested if they could catch it since they were so into it later.
The shark attack last summer, the first in the UK since the 19th century, was the most recent of several shark sightings in British seas in the previous year.
In February, when beachgoers noticed an unique triangular fin in the ocean, experts believed the UK’s first Great White Shark had been discovered off the coast of West Sussex.
On July 6, when sailors in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, were swimming in shallow water, a large basking shark, about 12 feet long, frightened them by passing by.
The most horrifying incident of the year occurred in late July when a lady was attacked by a shark off the coast of Cornwall’s popular tourist destination Penzance.
The shark bit into the swimmer’s leg, leaving “blood everywhere,” in what is believed to be the first assault of its sort in 175 years, leaving her “screaming for aid.”
Unidentified lady was snorkelling 15 miles off the coast of Cornwall when she was unprovokedly attacked by the shark and suffered serious injuries. According to The Sun, she could need minor plastic surgery to heal from the nasty bite.
She was hurried back into the boat, treated with first aid, and then returned to land where she was attended to by paramedics.
The bitten victim stated in a statement released by the tour operator: “What was a very frightening experience was made so much easier by the compassion and tranquilly of the individuals surrounding me.
“I want to thank the trip crew for bringing me back to land safely and fast, and for making me feel as secure as they could.
“We all assume these risks when we enter a predator’s environment, and we can never totally foresee an animal’s behaviour,” the statement goes.
Since the terrible attack, there have been more shark sightings that have alarmed tourists, like the one the Horne family saw last week off the coast of Folkestone, Kent.
In the middle of August, another shark was seen in Falmouth, Cornwall, swimming toward the River Fal.
By a well-known beach, the blue shark was seen hiding in shallow water. Some experts were worried that the shark could be ill or confused because of its unique position and lethargic motions.