\n Beachgoers enjoying the warm weather yesterday, June 24, were shocked when they spotted a small shark swimming near the water\u2019s edge.\n<\/p>\n
\n Many people shared pictures and videos online of the creature swimming in the sea.\n<\/p>\n
\n Sussex Wildlife Trust\u2019s marine conservation officer, Sarah Ward, said it was likely to be a smooth-hound, which can grow up to 2ft 6ins long.\n<\/p>\n
\n The shark fin spotted in Hove (Image: Mr Black)\n<\/p>\n
\n The shark looks similar to a large catshark and is fairly common in the sea off Sussex, however not often so close to the shore.\n<\/p>\n
\n Martina Eco, 38, from Hove, was among those to spot the shark when on the beach at around 8pm last night.\n<\/p>\n
\n She said: “I was on the beach after a swim, drying off and enjoying the sun when I noticed a few people with their phones out. I thought it was weird, so got up and looked.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Initially, I thought it was a motorised fish because of the way it was circling around.\n<\/p>\n
\n “But as I got closer, staying on the pebbles not to disturb it, I heard people saying it was a shark.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Ms Eco explained it was the first time she had seen a shark and found the experience “quite exciting.”\n<\/p>\n
\n She added: “It was really interesting.\n<\/p>\n
\n “There were quite a few children on the shoreline who were singing baby shark which was cute.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Black, who wished to keep his first name anonymous, also spotted the shark after his morning swim.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: “I had gone down to the beach quite early in the morning, about 8.30am, and I was going back to the shore when a man was aiming his phone camera.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I thought he was looking at me, which was strange, but then I looked to my left and saw a fin poking out the water.”\n<\/p>\n
\n The 32-year-old Brighton man described the shark to be moving in “tight circles” and was surprised to see it so near the shore.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Black added: “I\u2019d never seen anything like it before.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I saw a flat fish once, but normally the water is too murky to see anything.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It can\u2019t have been more than two feet long but at the word shark you do go \u2018oh\u2019 and think is he going to give me a nip.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Sussex Wildlife Trust confirmed that all UK sharks are fairly docile, which means they are highly unlikely to attack.\n<\/p>\n
\n Smooth hounds are large, fairly slender sharks and are usually grey\/brown.\n<\/p>\n
\n At birth they are approximately 1ft 3ins, with males growing to around 2ft 4ins and females 2ft 6ins.\n<\/p>\n
\n Their prey is primarily crustaceans but also includes cephalopods and bony fishes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beachgoers enjoying the warm weather yesterday, June 24, were shocked when they spotted a small shark swimming near…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-658007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}