Giant 11ft shark washes up on popular UK beach tangled up in rope sparking warning from marine experts

The basking shark, which appears to be around 11ft long washed up on Maidens beach in Ayrshire with rope tangled through its mouth and around its tail. The sighting, which took place on June 30, was posted online by Ellie MacLennan, who is doing a PhD focussing on marine life entanglement.

She urged the public to report sightings to the Scottish Marine Animal Streanding Scheme (SMASS). Ms MacLennan wrote on Facebook: "[SMASS] receive very few strandings reports involving basking sharks but this species is known to be vulnerable to entanglement in fishing gear and marine debris, though there is no way of knowing the source of this rope.

"If you find a dead stranded whale, dolphin, porpoise, seal, shark or turtle please report this to @smass.scotland. We can learn a huge amount from each and every case, not just about why the animal died but how it lived too which can give insight into what’s going on in the wider marine environment and any emerging threats.

"Thank you to Yolanda McCall for reporting this case and for allowing us to share her video." Ms MacLennan has a BSc (Hons) in Conservation Biology from the University of Aberdeen, and an MSc in International Marine Environmental Consultancy from Newcastle University.

She started working with SMASS in 2018 as coordinator of the Scottish Entanglement Alliance (SEA). Ms MacLennan said that basking sharks (Cetorhinus maximus) are the second largest species of shark in the world, growing up to 11m long and weighing over four tonnes. Basking sharks are typically passive and pose no danger to humans, generally.