A fisherman managed to catch what is thought to be the first ever albino all-white shark caught in Britain.
Jason Gillespie, 50, was deep-sea fishing with some friends near the Isle of Wight when he snared a rare tope shark that was entirely white.
The shark, which was around three feet in length, has a condition called leucism which means it has lost all the pigmentation in its skin.
Jason, who is from Waterlooville in Hampshire, said he would have usually immediately released a tope shark – but reeled this one on board so he could take a few pictures before letting it go.
‘I’ve been fishing for 30 years and I’ve never seen one like that. Apparently it’s a condition where the pigment dies out of the skin colour,’ said the shop fisher.
‘I caught it on Tuesday, off the Isle of Wight – what’re the chances? I have no idea. It’s the fish of a lifetime, one in a million.
‘I’ve certainly never seen one, it’s been on Facebook since Tuesday and no one else has come forward and said they have caught one.
‘I heard of one person from Wales who caught one years ago but it was much smaller, about 6lb.
‘I think generally if they lose their colour they struggle to survive because they don’t have the same camouflage and they can’t hunt as effectively and they get picked up by predators.
‘With tope, they are a protected species, so we unhook them in the water, but the minute we saw this one I shouted to my mate to grab the net and knew I needed to get some photos of it so we pulled her on board and took some pictures.
‘We released her as quickly as possible, she was only on the boat for less than a minute.’
The fish is similar to an albino, but rarer as albinos tend to have red eyes.
The tope shark feeds on a variety of fish species, crustaceans or cephalopods, and can travel huge distances.
A protected species, they are often found in the UK and can travel from Britain all the way to the Canary Islands.
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/10/05/uks-first-all-white-albino-shark-caught-by-fisherman-off-isle-of-wight-13371651/