Nine-Foot Shark Is Caught Off The Coast Of Devon
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What would you not like to come face to face with in UK waters? Shopping trolleys, nappies or maybe sharks?
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Well it could be possible because a nine-foot shark weighing in at 28 stone was caught in British waters today off the coast of Devon. That's swimming out of the window for the foreseeable then.
Fishermen battled with the massive porbeagle shark for more than an hour, trying to reel it in.
It was caught by Steve Saxby, 67, from south Molton, Devon. He was on a chartered fishing trip run by Dan Hawkins, who owns Reel Deal.
Skipper Dan said the giant fish was then carefully released back into the wild.
We would expect to see sharks more in countries that require a substantial plane trip to visit - but still hope we wouldn't. Even Spain is much too close for comfort but they're knocking about there too.
And this is the second monster shark caught in a few weeks aboard charters run by Dan Hawkins so we reckon he needs to hang up his boots, and fishing rod, because they're clearly drawn to him.
A 300Ilb specimen was caught in late April.
And fisherman Max Berryman is recovering after suffering deep leg wounds from a porbeagle which bit him after being dragged aboard the fishing vessel he works on.
The 21-year-old, suffered a 10-inch shark bite down his leg muscle and was taken to the Royal Cornwall Hospital.
Max told The Sun: "It had me in its jaws and could've had my privates off. We were on deck and a shark came over on the winch as we were bringing the nets in. It was almost 7ft long and at least 200lbs.
"It landed on the floor of the boat right next to me and was thrashing around wildly."
Porbeagles can grow up to 12ft long and weigh up to 600lbs.
Despite their size, fearsome teeth and relation to the Great White, porbeagles are shy creatures and not considered a threat to humans. Pull the other one. Maybe Max would disagree as well.
We don't like the fact that 'Great' and 'White' was mentioned in the same sentence as porbeagle.
Some experts believe porbeagles and blue sharks are migrating to UK waters because there is not enough food for them in the over-fished Atlantic. Can we send some fish to the Atlantic then?
The porbeagle shark - Lamna nasus in Latin - is classed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as critically endangered in the north east Atlantic. Not when all the fish arrive they won't be - then everyone will be happy.
In 2012 Graeme Pullen and Wayne Comben, from Hampshire, caught what is thought to be the biggest shark caught off Britain - a porbeagle - off the coast of Boscastle, Cornwall.
They estimated the female shark to be 10ft long and weighing 550lbs.
For any fish to be officially recognised as the biggest, rules stipulate it must be killed and weighed on shore.
