This is the moment a fisherman in Spain accidentally caught a seven-metre basking shark.
The incident occurred in the shores off Girona in northern Spain on Thursday.
The basking shark is listed as a protected species by the authorities in the region of Catalonia.
According to regional sea life foundation CRAM, the fisherman alerted the authorities when he realised what he had caught.
He brought the specimen back to Port de la Selva in Girona, where experts discovered it was a female.
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The basking shark is the largest fish in the Mediterranean and the second-largest in the world.
It feeds on plankton and other small fish by swimming with its mouth wide open.
Researchers from CRAM took samples from the shark for analysis in a bid to find out more about her.
Sources from the Confraria (Spanish Confraternity Council), told Europa Press that the shark entered the fisherman’s net and, as it tried to escape, ‘it coiled tighter’ and arrived at the port dead.
They insisted that the fisherman followed all protocols.
