A Bangor woman has told of her shock at finding a shark washed up on the beach while walking her dog.
Lucie Owens, 22, was with her partner Gareth and their pooch Jessie when they came across the creature on the sand at Crawfordsburn, Co Down around 2pm on Friday.
And she is convinced it was a zebra shark, which is usually found among tropical coral reefs in the Indian and South Pacific oceans and has distinctive markings.
The creature, which was dead when they found it, can live up to 30 years in the wild and grow as long as 11ft but this one measured around just 1.4ft.
Lucie told Belfast Live: "The dog just went over to it and we thought it was a bottle that came in. It was lying on its back and we rolled it over.
"We walk the dog everywhere really, but we just thought we would go up there for a little change and to get the dog an ice cream.
"The dog was scared of it, she looked at it and was kind of like, this is weird," added the support worker.
"You could see some sort of lining around its mouth."
Lucie said they found the shark on the beach near the very end of the car park.
"We were a bit freaked out really, I wasn't sure what it was - I thought it was kind of an eel thing almost and then we thought with the mouth, that's definitely a shark," she continued.
After some research, she said they think it's a zebra shark as it was "almost identical" to pictures of the species online but sadly when they returned to see if it was still there, the creature was gone.
Zebra sharks tend to stay near the seabed and move in an eel-like fashion, with long tails giving them grace and agility. Their colouring changes as they age and they are sometimes called leopard sharks because of their spots.
"It's not something you see every day anyway," added Lucie.
Exploris Aquarium aquarist Luis Ferreira said its a surprising find so far from the shark's natural habitat.
He too believes it is a zebra shark.
"I am a bit surprised that it got washed up," he added.
"I don't know the reasons why this animal was here because it is a tropical species in the co-pacific region.
"It's quite interesting that it got washed up on that beach. It's from the other side of the world.
"The temperature of the water is getting warmer with climate change, so it could have actually tried to swim a bit further - but the weather here in Northern Ireland is so unstable.
“It’s hard to say how this animal ended up here but he could have been caught on fishermen’s net.”
Whatever happened, Luis said he thinks “it’s unbelievable”.
Members of the public have suggested the fish could also have been a dogfish, which is also a member of the shark family.
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