A shark was seen swimming around a paddleboarder on the Cornwall coast with the moment caught on camera. Shot from the clifftop, one person recorded the unnerving sight.
The shark made a beeline for the paddleboarder with the witness quickly taking to their phone to record, in case the creature planned to make a meal of him. The nervous observer is a Falmouth resident who got the surprise as she enjoyed a walk near the Minack Theatre in west Cornwall. While walking, the young woman noticed splashing in the water at Porthcurno Beach.
She decided to stop and film to see what the shark would do next, reports CornwallLive.
The woman said she has seen some sharks off the coast before but this one was darting around at high speed.
“Watchers on the cliff were a bit alarmed when the creature beelined for the paddleboarder,” she said.
“I have seen basking sharks but this was quite dramatic. I’ve never seen sharks do this off the coast of Cornwall so it was quite exciting. It felt like quite a dramatic moment.”
In the footage, you can see the creature swim up to the paddle boarder and then change direction at the last minute.
The woman said she showed her video clip to the RNLI lifeguards on the beach below who indicated that it could be a porbeagle shark.
“I think the people on the cliff were pleased to see it change direction at the last minute. However, the people in the water didn’t seem to notice and paddled off in the same direction.”
The porbeagle shark is a member of the shark family Lamnidae, making it one of the closest living relatives of the great white shark, says Wildlife Trusts.
It adds that this large shark is usually found in deeper water, where it hunts a variety of smaller fish including mackerel, whiting and herring, as well as octopus, squid and cuttlefish.
They are strong swimmers and tagging studies have shown that they can travel huge distances.
