A MASSIVE shark has washed up on a popular British beach sparking a warning from marine experts.
The basking shark, which appears to be around 11ft long, was seen in Ayrshire with rope tangled through its mouth and around its tail.
The sighting, which took place on June 30, was posted online by Ellie MacLennan, who is doing a PhD focussing on marine life entanglement.
She urged the public to report sightings to the Scottish Marine Animal Streanding Scheme (SMASS).
Ms MacLennan wrote on Facebook: “[SMASS] receive very few strandings reports involving basking sharks but this species is known to be vulnerable to entanglement in fishing gear and marine debris, though there is no way of knowing the source of this rope.
“If you find a dead stranded whale, dolphin, porpoise, seal, shark or turtle please report this to @smass.scotland.
“We can learn a huge amount from each and every case, not just about why the animal died but how it lived too which can give insight into what’s going on in the wider marine environment and any emerging threats.
“Thank you to Yolanda McCall for reporting this case and for allowing us to share her video.”
Ms MacLennan has a BSc (Hons) in Conservation Biology from the University of Aberdeen, and an MSc in International Marine Environmental Consultancy from Newcastle University.
She started working with SMASS in 2018 as coordinator of the Scottish Entanglement Alliance (SEA).
Ms MacLennan said that basking sharks (Cetorhinus maximus) are the second largest species of shark in the world, growing up to 11m long and weighing over four tonnes.
They can be found in cold and temperate waters, and appear to favour coastal waters in spring and summer but deeper waters during the winter, she added.
They can dive to depths of up to 900 metres to feed on plankton and are known to travel huge distances.
Ms MacLennan said that one was tracked covering almost 12,000 miles in “a little over two months”.
Basking sharks are typically passive and pose no danger to humans, generally.
The sighting comes after an enormous shark was filmed floating about the waters of Bournemouth as beachgoers basked in the sunshine metres away.
Surfer Christian Pepin spotted the sea beast from the safety of the pier and caught footage of the predator lurking in the shallows.
Basking sharks are the second largest species of fish, after whale sharks.
Grey-brown adults grow to an average of 20-26ft and weigh five tons – but they can be much bigger.
The largest accurately measured was caught in Canada in 1851 and weighed 16 tons.
It was 40.3ft (12.27m) long.
Specimens longer than 33ft are rarely seen these days because over-fishing has reduced their numbers.
Basking sharks have enormous mouths more than three feet wide, with jaws that stretch open as they feed in shallow waters close to shore.
Their babies are huge as well. They are born, measuring five or six feet long, after a gestation thought to last from one to three years.
They are a protected red list species, considered vulnerable worldwide and endangered in the North East Atlantic
