A fisherman off Chesil Beach in the United Kingdom was aiming for a good catch, but did not expect to haul in a two-meter-long porbeagle shark, a critically endangered close kin of the deadly great white shark.
Jan Davey was fishing off the Dorset coastline when he caught the monster shark about 300 yards off the renowned beach. The 39-year-old’s boat was not an ideal match with the shark’s sheer size, but he was able to bring it to shore before a gathering of an eager crowd.
“I felt a lot of weight on the net,” Davey said, thinking it was “something interesting” but was uncertain as to what the heavy weight was.
Davey said he had been fishing since age 16 and had never witnessed “anything like that so close to the shore.”
The porbeagle shark was so huge it was mistaken by a passerby as a surfboard until its large jaw revealed the shark’s distinct razor-sharp teeth.
According to the fisherman, he was unaware of the specific species he caught – which is declared illegal to fish – and that it was already dead prior to being pulled in. He later brought it back to the sea.
It was the porbeagle’s breeding season, said the Dorset Wildlife Trust.
The porbeagle is approximately the size of the great white shark, but believed to pose very little threat to humans.
It is speculated that porbeagle sharks are getting closer to land because of food shortage caused by overfishing in the Atlantic Ocean.
Back in May, huge 9-ft. porbeagles were also seen by fishermen off the Cornwall coast during an approaching bank holiday weekend. They were spotted swimming near Boscastle.
Porbeagle sharks, one of the 30 shark species found in the U.K. waters, are listed as vulnerable in the Red List of Threatened Species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Apart from an over-fished ocean offering scarce food supply, other contributors to their decline include accidental catching and commercial hunting in some parts of the world.
Environmental groups have campaigned against the fishing of the porbeagles and are calling for greater protection for them.
