300lb Mako shark found in Wales
Expert have been left baffled after a deadly 10ft shark was found washed up on a beach in North Wales, thousands of miles from its natural habitat.
The 300lb dead Mako shark, which was found with significant wound marks down its flank, was discovered by fishermen on Barmouth Beach in Gwynedd, a popular UK tourist destination. Dozens of stunned locals and holiday makers turned up to take photographs of the huge predator, with one member of the public even leaving it a bunch of flowers.
Known as the fastest shark in the world, makos normally feed on squid or fish such as mackerel and tuna but they are a threatened species usually found in tropical waters like the Gulf of Mexico or the Caribbean Sea.
Shark fishing expert David Turner told Angling Times: “It is a female mako which is extremely rare in UK waters, only three out of 65 ever caught have been females. I don’t think it had been dead long before it was found as it still had the ‘metallic blue’ sheen which usually fades an hour or so after death.”
He added: “I also don’t think it was attacked by something bigger, the marks look like they have been made by a swordfish as swordfish is a favourite food of mako's but sometimes the swordfish comes out best in the conflict.”
An autopsy undertaken on the shark has since revealed a recently ingested harbour porpoise in its stomach but why the fish died remains a mystery.
