The Evening Chronicle's been having a spot of bother with animal stories lately.

In the Newcastle paper's 'Feedback' column, where assistant editor Mick Smith cheerily holds up his hands to comments and corrections from editors, there has been lively discussion on sharks, pigeons, cockroaches… and more.

Controversy was sparked when the paper printed a chilling picture of a "shark" fin gliding up the Tyne.

The creature bumped a fisherman's boat so he snapped it for the world (well, Newcastle) to see.

An expert contacted by the paper thought it unlikely to be a shark, but the fisherman stood by his story.

Until reader Jo Stafford wrote in to put them all right by saying: "Anyone with a mildly trained eye [can see] the animal in question is not a shark. The shape of the back and fin are clearly cetacean."

Cetacean? Another wrote to say: "Dolphins swim up rivers, sharks don't. Dolphins will playfully bump boats, sharks do not. Dolphins will break the water surface, while sharks in the North Sea rarely, if ever, do."

All very fishy, but is that the end of the tail?

No. Because the same week the paper printed a picture of a cockroach to go with a story about a hotel and its public health inspections.

'Peri'