A new breed of sharks could be coming to British waters as seas warm up around the island nation because of climate change in the next three decades, a new study suggested, but their numbers probably will be kept in check by plastics pollution.
Ken Collins, from Southampton's National Oceanography Centre, said as many as 10 shark species currently found in warmer parts of the world could make their ways to the shores of the United Kingdom by 2050 because of climate change, the BBC News reported.
Those species include the great hammerhead, blacktip shark, sand tiger or spotted raggedtooth shark, bigeye thresher, Longfin mako, bronze whaler or copper shark, Oceanic whitetip shark, silky shark, dusky shark, and the goblin shark.
The BBC News said the waters off the UK are already home to about 10 million small and 100,000 larger sharks from 40 different species.
"It's likely we will be seeing more sharks spread from warmer regions such as the Mediterranean Sea towards our waters in the UK over the next 30 years," Collins said. "… Though while the potential number of shark species around the UK may increase in the next few decades, the overall number of sharks, especially the larger ones, will fall as a result of over-fishing, plastic waste and climate change.”
The Guardian reported in February that species such as baleen whales and basking sharks, which feed through filtering seawater for plankton, are ingesting the tiny particles of indigestible plastic.
The species swallow thousands of cubic yards of seawater a day, but the microplastic can block their ability to absorb nutrients and have toxic side-effects.
Collins said he believed great white sharks were already in UK waters, seeing that they have been found in colder water off South Africa and seals – the shark's favorite meal – can be found in ample supply in Cornwall.
Southampton researchers said that Cornwall is the top place in the UK to see sharks with at least 20 species off its coast.
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