After reeling in the biggest blue shark caught off Britain’s coastline, the last thing you’d do is.. THROW IT BACK
But angler John returned 18st record fish to the sea to bite another day
A HUGE blue shark has shattered the record for the biggest caught in British waters.
The 18st monster took an hour to land. It was weighed and photographed – then gently returned to the sea.
The 256lb shark obliterated the previous record of 218lb, which had stood for 58 years.
The capture comes after several sightings of unusually large sharks around the coast of southern Britain.
The 9ft blue shark – scientific name prionace glauca – was caught during a fishing trip off Penzance, Cornwall.
It was hooked by amateur angler John Dine. With the help of his three mates, John spent an hour reeling it in to their 30ft chartered fishing boat.
Robin Chapman, skipper of Bite Adventures, said: “As soon as they hooked the shark, we knew it was big.
“It went off like an absolute steam train.
“The fish repeated this five or six times but luckily the wire and hook held fast, enabling them to haul it on board.”
The Essex group calculated the shark’s weight by measuring its length and girth.
They struggled to hold it aloft for the obligatory photo before returning it back to the sea safe and well.
The fish was only out of the water for a couple of minutes and was kept wet at all times.
Now the group are claiming the “catch and release” record from the Shark Angling Club of Great Britain. Club secretary John McMaster said: “The fish is very, very big – an absolute whopper.
“We have received the application, with items used for the catch, such as the line and hook.
“Our committee have been analysing them and I expect an announcement stating a new record within the next day or two.”
Previous records had to be weighed using scales on land, meaning the shark had to be killed.
New rules mean they can be weighed on board and freed.
Blue sharks are registered as “near threatened” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Larger examples live in warmer waters, where the heaviest claimed was a massive 862lb.
They rarely attack humans and have only been linked to four fatalities since records began in 1580.
The Daily Record revealed last month that shark expert Graeme Pullen believes a deadly great white is stalking the south coast near Hayling Island, Hampshire.
He said: “Make no mistake, this is the big one. The danger is it will eventually stumble across someone in a wetsuit and mistake them for a seal.”
Great white sharks – immortalised in the 1975 movie Jaws – are known to have killed 80 people but have never before been recorded in UK waters.