A fisherman captured the scary moment he spotted a massive dorsal fin slicing through the waters towards him.
Jimmy Price reached for his phone and captured the terrifying moment a the huge shark casually cruised alongside him. The encounter which happened inside Holyhead Breakwater on Anglesey, North Wales left him feeling “shocked.”
The hefty beast, estimated to be between 10ft-11ft long made a leisurely approach towards the harbour before veering away at a buoy, heading back into the open sea.
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Although Jimmy knew straight away what it was, he can be heard declaring “big fish that” in the footage which he shared online, reports North Wales Live.
(Image: Jimmy Price)
Echoing the iconic Jaws movie, his angling mates joked, “gonna need a bigger float” while others vowed to give the island’s waters a wide berth.
“Wouldn’t stop me sh***ing my budgie smugglers if that fin popped up in front of me,” one admitted.
“Lots of them around the Breakwater and the coast here,” said one woman who added: “I did once cr*p myself swimming out from MacKenzie Pier and came across one quite close. No harm to humans, they’re plankton eaters thank goodness!”
Experts said the beast was a basking shark known for their docile nature and diet of plankton, posing little threat to humans.
(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Basking sharks are the second-largest fish species in the world, only surpassed by the whale shark.
They can reach a staggering 28ft in length, roughly equivalent to a London bus. The sighting of one at Holyhead was taken as a positive sign of the health of local waters.
The size of the shark spotted by Jimmy suggested it was still young.
Anglesey Sea Zoo in Brynsiencyn confirmed this, describing the sighting as “exciting” and adding: “We do get reports of these close to shore but this is the first official sighting (of a basking shark) this season!”
Recalling his encounter, Jimmy said: “I was walking along the breakwater when I saw something out of the corner of my eye.
“I’d not seen a basking shark before but I’ve caught other sharks so I knew what it was. I was pretty shocked I didn’t expect to see a shark cruising around the harbour at that time of the day.”
Holyhead Breakwater, stretching 1.7 miles, holds the record as the UK’s longest.
Despite a few anglers casting lines in the harbour, Jimmy believes he was the sole witness to the shark.
He recounted, “I dropped my rod and started chasing it down the breakwater with my mobile phone.
“I wanted proof. I see lots of curiosities when out fishing like sea otters running across the beach at Llanddulas and I like to share them online. People are interested and it can be educational.”
Basking sharks, which grace British coastal waters from May to September, are more frequently spotted later in the summer as temperatures rise. They’re typically seen around southwest England, west Scotland, and northwest Wales.
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