A RARE type of shark was spotted in Manx waters in September.
Simon Davies, a warden on the Calf of Man, spotted a thresher shark leaping fully out of the water while watching for sea birds.
He spotted a large splash in his telescope and after focussing on the area saw the animal leap out of the water.
Simon was able to identify the shark as a thresher shark because of its extremely long upper lobe of the tail which can be as long as the rest of the body. In this case the shark was around three metres long.
Thresher sharks are rare in the Irish Sea and tend to be found much further offshore. In fact there are only a couple of records of them ever being seen in Manx waters – one of which dates back to 1898.
A spokesperson for the Manx Wildlife Trust said: "Thresher shark populations in the north east Atlantic are classed as near threatened so every record of them is valuable."
This story is part of isleofman.com's Review of the Year 2011.
