Prepare to be amazed by this heart-stopping moment when a postman encountered a massive nine-foot blue shark off the coast of Cornwall, with a fishing hook caught in its face.
Keen wildlife photographer Martin Yelland captured the amazing moment the blue shark swam just inches away from him off the coast in Penzance.
The man can be seen snorkelling right next to the marine creature in the jaw-dropping pictures.
But what stunned the diver was that the nine-foot shark had a massive hook lodged in the side of its face.
It’s believed the giant blue shark – which can measure up to 13ft – was left with the foreign object sticking out of its mouth because of muffed fishing practices.
Martin, a postman from St Erth, told the Sun Online: “It was a beautiful clear day and we saw loads of dolphins, some really small ones with their mothers too.
“It was quite a long wait for the sharks, maybe three hours until the big nine-foot female made an appearance.
“Initially, there were two smaller sharks nibbling the bait, but not sticking around for long.”
Stunning images captured the moment the postman swam right next to the massive animal in the Cornish waters.
He added: “When the big female did finally turn up, it was the icing on the cake of a brilliant day.
“She stayed with us until the skipper said we had to leave due to the tide, and impending darkness.
“The only sad thing was she had a hook in the side of her face, due to fishing practices.
“We asked our guide what could be done for the shark, but apparently even if they could catch the shark, it may cause it even more stress to attempt to remove it, which they might not have been able to do anyway.
“A sad, but possibly poignant reminder about the state of our seas and fishing.
“It was exciting seeing the big shark, as she was a good few feet larger than the shark I saw on my previous trip.”
A blue shark is a sleek, elegant species that has beautiful metallic blue backs which provide brilliant camouflage out in the open ocean.
They are slim torpedo-shaped sharks with a blue colouration on top and white underneath, along with distinctively long pectoral fins.
Blue sharks are hunters – they feed mostly mackerel and herring as well as squid and sometimes hunt larger fish such as cod, pollock and coalfish.
They can usually be spotted around the South West coast of England in the summer months, normally 10+ miles offshore.
Blue sharks have been known to attack humans but they could hardly be described as frequent “man-eaters”.
The predators have been implicated in precious few attacks on humans.
Since the year 1580 blue sharks have been thought to have been involved in just 13 biting incidents with only four of those being fatal.
Blue sharks have been reported to circle swimmers or divers for 15 minutes or more before going in for a bite.
The mighty animal was seen leaping out of the water, as its tail grazed the surface before splashing back under.
This is a rare sighting of a thresher shark in UK waters – as they generally stay far offshore over deeper water.
And earlier in the year, a fisherman grappled with a “monster shark” that sparked terror at a beach – saying he’s “never seen anything like it in 13 years”.
Darron Tapper, 54, said the shark pulled his fishing rod out of his hands and almost dragged him in with it when it went for his lure.
He saw a large shadow under the surface but was unable to properly identify the creature although he believes it may have been a shark due to the sheer power of its bite.
Darron returned to Boscombe beach in Bournemouth, Dorset to alert lifeguards.
By that time they had received two other reports from bathers of what was suspected to be a shark in the water off the busy beach.
The sightings prompted an RNLI lifeguard to use a megaphone to tell everybody to get out of the water in scenes reminiscent of the classic movie Jaws.
They also put up red flags on the beach – the RNLI’s signal to warn swimmers of a serious hazard in the water.
