DAY-TRIPPERS on a mackerel fishing trip from Lyme Regis were amazed to see a harmless basking shark within metres of their boat.

Harry May was returning to Lyme harbour with his group aboard the Marie F when he noticed some unusual activity from the seagulls.

He said: “I came around the beacon, just at the end of a mackerel trip like we always do, and every seagull in Lyme Regis was circling around the pool, which is the area between the Cobb and the high wall.

“I had never seen them do this before and when I looked I could see these two fins in the water, one was the dorsal fin and the other was the tail fin.”

Harry steered the boat closer to the creature to take a closer look.

“It was in very shallow water and then we could see it, but only faintly, it was more of a dark shape,” he said. “It is completely harmless.

“We followed it while it went around in a circle and came within 25 metres of the harbour mouth and then it turned around and went back out to sea again with all the seagulls following it and screaming overhead.”

Reaching lengths of up to 11 metres, basking sharks are the largest fish in British waters and one of only three plankton-feeding shark species.

They are more often spotted further out to sea but are also common around the Cornish coast.

Harry said he hasn’t seen one for several years and was amazed it was so close to the harbour mouth.

He said: “My mate Barry Wason goes out quite a long way regularly catching whelks, he sees them more often out there.

“If it’s absolutely flat calm and there’s no wind, I think that’s when you see their fins.

“We have an annual plankton bloom, we call it May water because it’s often here in May, and this would be a good time to see a basking shark feeding.”