Holidaymakers on a boat were shocked after a giant marine creature was spotted off the Gwynedd beach.
Reports state the marine creature, which was most likely a basking shark, was almost the size of their vessel. A video clip recorded by Carmel Richardson, who was on a friend's speedboat with her family, caught the creature.
At the time the creature was spotted, the boat was just beyond the safe-swimming zone at Abersoch's Main Beach on the Llyn Peninsula. Initially, the group believed it was s dolphin, however, upon getting a closer look they realised it was something much bigger, North Wales Live reports.
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On the video, they can be heard crying "Oh my God!" and "See the size of that!". After the shark was sighted, two children being towed on an inflatable were quickly pulled in as the boat sped away.
Carmel, 57, a retired M&S manager from Crosby, Merseyside, said she felt honoured to have seen it. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” she said.
“We’d only just tootled out on the water past the yellow buoys. The sea was quite quiet – there weren’t many boats on the water – when my friend Sylia Heath saw something and asked what it was.
“I said it was probably a dolphin. As we got closer, my son Stephen, who was on a jet ski, said, “that’s not a dolphin, that’s a shark!”. It’s not something you expect to see near a beach in Wales.
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“The fin was much bigger than a dolphin’s and when we got closer we could see the size of its body. Our boat was 18ft long and the shark was only a bit shorter - we think it was about 15ft in length."
Carmel continued: “The kids had been in the water a few moments earlier. By this time they were back on the rubber ring, so we pulled them in and quickly left out of respect for the animal.
“We always try to be respectful while out in the sea as we love the area so much. The next day I told the beach warden about it and he said it was probably a basking shark.”
Basking sharks are the second largest of its kind in the world and are often found in warmer coastal waters in Britain. Despite their intimidating size, they are generally harmless.
“It was a lovely sight and it certainly hasn’t put us off going in the water,” said Carmel, who was in a boat owned by friends Lyn and Dave Bradley. “We happened to have friends over from the US and it was their first visit to Abersoch. They couldn’t believe it – they'd never seen a shark in America and had had to come all the way to Wales to find one.”
Frankie Hobro, owner and director of Anglesey Sea Zoo, Brynsiencyn, said another juvenile was spotted by a boat crew off the island’s north coast a couple of years ago. “The waters between Anglesey and the Isle of Man are a UK hotspot for basking sharks as, being planktonic feeders, that’s where their food is carried on the currents,” she said. “In fact you could quite easily organise basking shark-spotting trips there.
“Having said that, it’s really exciting to hear of another sighting, especially one so close to shore. From the description, it’s definitely a basking shark. Usually they’re seen a little later in the summer. This is quite early in the season, so hopefully we may get more reports in the months ahead.”
She added: “Most people never see them in the sea. It’s only by viewing a model that they can appreciate just how big they are – they are bigger than Great White sharks.
“The interesting thing about Britain’s basking sharks is that, although we know where they are during the summer, we have little idea what they do for the other six months of the year,” she said. “They are vulnerable to disturbance and, when boats become aware of them, they should stay well clear.
“It’s often difficult to see them because, as they are planktonic feeders, the waters where they found are usually quite murky. As they are basking feeders, it’s actually easier to see them when snorkelling than when diving. Just don’t get too close - they can turn sharply and whip their large tails around.
“As well as the fin you will often see its nose peeking out from the water. This tends to be pinkish or light-coloured, the result of opening its mouth to feed for long periods, exposing it to the air.
“This time of year we tend to get a lot of fin sightings off places like Cornwall, sparking shark scares. But you can pretty much guarantee that in the vast majority of cases, it’s only a basking shark.”
