Fishers in Port de la Selva capture 7-meter-long basking shark

A group of fishers in the northern municipality of Port de la Selva, in the Alt Empordà county, accidentally captured a 7-meter-long basking shark.

The animal ended up dying despite one of the fishers warning authorities and transferring it to the port. Mayor Lidia Ferrer told Catalunya Informació radio that the shark was entangled with the boat nets.

Catalan rural agents and CRAM maritime foundation experts were deployed on the site for biometrics to study the animal. The shark was moved from open waters to the port.

The foundation reports that it was a female shark of an endangered species. It is the largest fish in the Mediterranean Sea and the second-largest one in the world after the whale shark.

Basking sharks filter animals and swim with their mouths open, eating plankton.