One of the biggest sharks caught off Britain weighing nearly 40 stones and measuring over eight-foot long has been hooked off the Cornish coast.
The monster porbeagle, a relation of the great white, was caught at an undisclosed location off Cornwall by Ross Needs and Dan Hawkins on Saturday.
The fantastic female weighed a whopping 500Ilbs and was captured on a charter trip run by Mr Hawkins who runs Reel Deal Chartered.
He said it took hours to reel in the massive fish.
"It was a huge fish - one of the biggest we've had," he said.
"It was a two hour fight to reel it in.
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"Hopefully there will be bigger to come."
The fish was released after being caught.
A second 250lb porbeagle was caught by Peter Stern aboard the same boat on Monday.
Porbeagles are mackerel sharks and live in the cold and temperate marine waters of the North Atlantic and Southern Hemisphere.
In 2017 three porbeagle sharks weighing 238lbs, 392lbs and 500lbs were caught off the coastline of Devon and Cornwall.
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The 'playful' shark is white on the bottom and grey on the top to allow it to camouflage while hunting smaller fish.
The numbers of porbeagles has dwindled over the last few decades after a rise in them being sought by hobby fishers.
Only a handful of non-confirmed shark attacks have ever been attributed to the porbeagle.
The International Shark Attack File attributes three bites to the species - one provoked and none fatal and two on boats.
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One older anecdote tells of a fisherman who provoked a porbeagle into leaping from the water and tearing his clothes.
But there are many reports of porbeagles swimming up to oil rig workers.
No injuries from these incidents are reported either, according to Shark Insider.
Experts have suggested in these instances the sharks may be curious or 'playing'.
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Porbeagles can grow up to 12ft long and weigh up to 600lbs, 43-stone.
They come from the family of Lamnidae sharks and can be found in the North Atlantic Ocean.
The shark has been spotted all around the UK in deep waters, usually several miles offshore in the summer time where it hunts mackerel herring and squid.
There have been sightings of the shark off Scotland, Devon and South Shields in recent years.
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The porbeagle is also found around the coasts of North Africa, in the Mediterranean and around Australia and New Zealand.
Despite being related to the great white shark the porbeagle is not known to be dangerous.
Aggressive fishing rates and slow population has resulted in the shark numbers dramatically dwindling.
