A relative of the great white shark was caught off Cornwall by four friends who were shark fishing for the first time.
George Hill, of Truro, and his brother Zack, along with Rob and Tom Cunliffe, took to the water off Falmouth at the weekend, not expecting to catch anything.
However, they were amazed that after a tussle with the rod when they bagged a porbeagle, reports Cornwall Live.
George said: "We went out that day for the first time targeting a variety of fish and we thought we would try for something bigger.
"We didn’t think it was even going to happen. We had three bites and lost two other sharks and had something huge launch out of the water 20ft from the boat, which we thought could have been a tuna.
"The reel was smoking from the moment I picked up the rod, as the unknown creature bolted off into the deep blue. We were using whole mackerel as bait, which we left to swelter in the sun for a couple a days to get a real stench going."
He added: "We knew it was big during the battle but were shocked when we could see it coming up in the water.
“It was scary to see one as they are a member of the same family of sharks as the great white.
"To catch one was quite special. Not sure how rare it is to catch one but I think they are harder to catch than blue sharks."
The group of friends returned the porbeagle, which they reckoned weighed 20 to 30 lbs, to the sea.
George regularly goes spearfishing in Cornish waters and has recently seen pods of dolphins, barrel jellyfish, puffins and large schools of bass in and around the sea off Cornwall.
The porbeagle, which has been known to attack humans, has been assessed as vulnerable worldwide by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
