An experienced British fisherman was shocked when he caught a rare tope shark closed to the beach as he had never seen this kind of shark in the area before.
Tope sharks can grow as long as six feet and usually eat fish, crabs and squids.
Luckily, this type of shark is not dangerous to humans and there are no recorded cases of it ever attacking a person.
Surprisingly, this shark is considered critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The fisherman, named Alex said, "What a fish, I was absolutely buzzing. It suggests that either their numbers are on the rise, or they're seeking alternative food sources due to a scarcity of their primary prey, mackerel, likely a result of overfishing," as per ExpressUK.
"Tope are typically deep water sharks, so you'd normally expect to catch them from boats," he added.
Tope shark safely returned to sea after surprising catch:
Alex immediately released the shark after catching it and guessed that it weighed about 40 pounds.
In earlier times, people used to hunt tope sharks because their livers contain a high amount of vitamin A.
It is worth mentioning that in the UK and EU, it is against the law to keep tope sharks and even if anyone catches using a fishing rod must put it back into the sea alive to help protect the species.
