IT BRIEFLY threatened the position of the sculpture on Bill Heine’s roof as Oxford’s most famous shark, but it will no longer be appearing at an Oxford University college ball.

Plans to display a nurse shark at the Somerville-Jesus Ball, held in the grounds of Somerville College on May 4, were scrapped yesterday after concerned students wrote to college principal.

Some students had reportedly threatened to boycott the ball if the display went ahead and wrote to principal Dr Alice Prochaska asking her to intervene.

Yesterday a statement from the college confirmed it had told the students organising the event to cancel their plans to show the shark.

Alex Rogers, a professor in conservation biology at Oxford University and a fellow of Somerville College, was involved in the decision to ban the creature.

He said: “I only heard about it on Tuesday and as soon as I found out I got on to the principal and there was instantly a move to ban the animal.”

Prof Rogers added although he believed the students had taken the welfare of the animal seriously there was still a moral objection to the plan.

He said: “The implications of having a large animal on display for entertainment is something which has greatly concerned the college. For that reason the presence of the animal has been vetoed.”