Porbeagle shark caught yards from popular UK beach

Fisherman lands two-metre long porbeagle shark off Chesil Beach, Dorset

David Trayner 

Monday 26 October 2015

A two-metre long shark has been caught yards off one of Britain’s most popular tourist beaches.A fisherman hauled in the porbeagle shark – a close relative of the great white – just 300 yards off Chesil Beach, in Dorset.

Tourists were surprised when Jan Davey brought his unusual catch ashore and laid it on the shingle.

The 39-year-old sat astride the fish, which was so large that at least one visitor thought it was a surfboard, and opened its massive jaws to reveal rows of razor-sharp teeth.

Mr Davey, who caught the porbeagle in his net by accident while fishing, told the Dorset Echo: “I’ve been fishing here since I was 16.

“I’ve never seen anything like that so close to the shore.”

Porbeagles, which can grow up to more than three metres long, usually stay at least 10 miles offshore.

But this specimen got caught in Mr Davey’s trammel net near Chesil Cove.

Readon …

Little-Known Porbeagle Shark May Soon Get Protection (Op-Ed)

Nicole Paquette, The Humane Society of the United States | November 28, 2014 06:29pm 

Nicole Paquette is the vice president of wildlife protection at The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). She contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Following a recent decision by U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the federal government must now reconsider protecting porbeagle sharks in the Northwest Atlantic. According to the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), populations of the shark in those waters have declined 90 percent during the last 50 years as a result of commercial fishing.

The court rejected a decision by the NMFS to deny listing those sharks under the Endangered Species Act, a ruling that may led to better protection for these imperiled fish.

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