James Warren
DEEP sea divers have managed to film a ‘giant’ shark off the coast of Andalucia this weekend.
The creature was spotted yesterday by the Guardia Civil maritime patrol just 400 metres from the Mamola coastline, near Polopos, Granada.
They immediately closed the waters in the area and enlisted the help of nearby diving organisation, La Espera Underwater Activities Club, to monitor the creature as it made its way along the coastline.
Expert divers managed to capture the gentle giant skimming the surface using specialist underwater cameras before it disappeared into the ocean on its quest for food.
Clearly taking advantage of the quiet waters, the eight-metre long behemoth was identified as a basking shark, a plankton feeder and the second largest shark species in the world.
This is the second spotting of a large shark in the space of two weeks.
On May 3, a similar species was spotted swimming just metres from a pier near Calahonda beach in Granada.
It was estimated to measure around four metres in length, half the size of Saturday’s monster.
Basking sharks measure on average eight metres or 26 feet in length, with the largest recorded specimen measuring a staggering 9.75 metres (32 feet).
