First great white shark in decades spotted off Spain

Scientists with Alnitak recorded the shark for over an hour

A great white shark has been spotted near Spain's Balearic Islands for the first time in at least 30 years. Conservation workers saw the five-metre predator as it swam across Cabrera archipelago national park on Thursday morning.

Bite marks on dead whales and unconfirmed sightings of have long fuelled rumours of great white sharks in Spanish waters since the last confirmed sighting in 1976. But this time scientists with Spanish conservation group Alnitak were able to record and track the shark for over an hour.

"We saw a black fin and straight away could see it was a very big shark," said documentary director Fernando López-Mirones, who was on the boat with researchers. "The conditions in the sea were amazing and we had the specimen around three metres from the boat, and we could watch it up close for 70 minutes," he told El Pais.

The conservation group announced the sighting on its social media page with a photograph of the great white, and said it would also release video recordings.

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