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A FISHERMAN was left reeling after spotting a 7ft shark swimming just yards away from a Dorset beach.
The angler filmed what’s believed to be a young basking shark at Chesil beach as he spoke to his amazed friend on camera.
He’s heard saying: “It’s 11am, Chesil beach, and there’s a shark, a big shark, basically on the beach.
“I’ve never seen anything like that in my life.”
He then asks his companion, “Have you Ben?”
‘FISH OF A LIFETIME’
Ben replies: “Twenty years fishing Chesil and that is a big shark.”
The man behind the camera then says: “What is that? Porbeagle?
“We’ve got ground bait in the water and that would be a fish of a lifetime off the shore but we haven’t got the right rod today.
“What the hell, it came in, literally.”
The pair posted the video to the Weymouth Angling Centre Facebook group, where members discussed the find at length.
Chris Painter said he thought the creature was a young basking shark.
He mused: “It’s moving too slowly to be a hunting porbeagle and the fins and tale both dorsal fin and tail seem quite floppy, more typical of a basking and the top of the tail fin looks more baskingy than porbeagly”.
Porbeagles are one of the most common types of shark to be spotted by British fisherman.
The powerful creature with a distinctive dorsal fin measures up to 6ft and can be found all around the British Isles in the warm summer months.
Thankfully, there has never been a confirmed case of a porbeagle killing a human, as the predators feed on smaller fish.
A basking shark is the largest shark in UK seas – though thankfully they only eat plankton.
The find comes after two huge sharks weighing 21 stone were caught off the coast of Dorset earlier this week.
The pair of porbeagles – a relative of the deadly Great White – were caught by anglers Adam Carter and Matt Mizen about seven miles off Portland in the vicinity of Chesil beach.
Commercial fishing for the critically endangered species has been banned in European waters, resulting in a resurgence of the species.
Last year, researchers from the University of Southampton said that more shark species could migrate north to UK waters as the oceans warm.
Adam, who also runs a fishing charter business part-time, said he had never known British waters to be so full of sharks.
More than 40 different species of shark pass through UK waters, but only 21 of these can be found all year round.
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