A great white shark suffered a horrifying death after finding itself stuck in a freak accident.
The fearsome sea beast tragically bled out after becoming stuck in a diving cage and trapped between the bars.
In 2019, the shark lunged at divers inside the cage off Guadalupe Island, in the north-western Mexican state of Baja California.
The often feared great whites, prone to killer attacks, are endangered creatures considered 'vulnerable' by the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF), which also insists the shark is important to marine life.
Diving cages are used by tourism groups to attract visitors who want to get up close and personal with sharks, including the great whites, considered the be the most dangerous of them all.
A video of the horror incident was released by Arturo Islas Allende, an environmentalist, released the video after an initial claim the shark swam away after freeing itself.
The helpless animal could be seen in the video struggling to free itself for up to 25 minutes, before finally being overcome by the blood loss and sinking to the murky depths below.
The owner of the ship, Nautilus, that was involved in the strange incident, said: "[The shark was] strangely aggressive, attacking one of the cages used by our company to dive at Guadalupe Island."
Nautilus Dive Adventures said their cages complied with Mexican regulations and commented: "There was an incident with a great white shark repeatedly charging one of our cages at Guadalupe Island in October towards the end of our 2019 season. We were horrified, very sad, upset and worried for both the shark and our divers.
"We stage approximately 50,000 white shark dives every year and have been running these trips since 2003."
Sharks like the one that became so tragically stuck in the diver's cage "play an important role at the top of the marine food chain" but are rare now thanks to "years of being hunted by man for fins and teeth, and often as a trophy for sport fishing".
Incidents like this are one of the reasons behind calls for a ban on diving cages used for looking at sharks and a ban was even introduced in New Zealand 2018.
Shark diving tourism is popular in areas where the creature is common such as off the coast of California but has been criticised for the danger it may pose to sharks.
A 2018 study said that sharks can become injured when coming into contact with a cage and it may also have an impact on their behaviour, and there are further concerns over if widespread tourism is bad for the marine life in the area.
