'Shark' fin captured by photographer in West Sussex - but experts think it was something else

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Experts have disputed a reported sighting of a shark in West Sussex.

Video footage emerged of what appeared to be shark fin off the coast at East Worthing on Saturday evening (October 7).

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Toby Benjamin, a writer and lecturer from Worthing, was at the beach with his wife and daughter at the time of the sighting.

Toby, 55, posted his daughter Phoebe’s photos and video in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

Experts have disputed a reported sighting of a shark in West Sussex. Photo: @Toby_J_BenjaminExperts have disputed a reported sighting of a shark in West Sussex. Photo: @Toby_J_Benjamin
Experts have disputed a reported sighting of a shark in West Sussex. Photo: @Toby_J_Benjamin

He wrote: “Last night we saw a large slow moving shark at East Worthing for 25 mins, 150 metres out. Images through my monoculars at 6.30 pm. Can anyone help identify the shark?”

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Toby told the Worthing Herald that he and his family ‘were convinced it was a shark’, adding: “It really looked like a shark but experts have told me they think it’s a seal. A fried of mine saw something similar but spotted it was a seal when it turned its head.”

The Sussex Dolphin Project responded to Toby on social media.

A spokesperson said: “This is very interesting. From the video we are leaning towards it being a bottling seal, a resting behaviour that can make them look like a fin.”

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Experts have disputed a reported sighting of a shark in West Sussex. Photo: @Toby_J_BenjaminExperts have disputed a reported sighting of a shark in West Sussex. Photo: @Toby_J_Benjamin
Experts have disputed a reported sighting of a shark in West Sussex. Photo: @Toby_J_Benjamin

Stephen Savage, Sussex Regional Coordinator Sea Watch Foundation, agreed.

He said: “My best guess would be a resting seal which rest head up in the water, grey seals are observed locally doing this.

"Also, sharks have to swim to breathe, so a shark would not swim slowly, although there is no indication as what slow is. But if is was observed for 25 minutes, it must have been very slow.

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"There is an adult grey seal swimming back and forth along the coast and may well be this seal.”

Toby said he initially thought it was a bird floating in the sea but a fellow beachgoer ‘thought it was a dolphin’.

"When we looked more carefully and looked on Google we thought dolphins’ fins are more curved,” Toby said.

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"We started looking at white shark fins and it seemed to be a match to one seen in Goring in 2022, so we were slightly in awe.

"It was going so slowly.”

Toby said it was ‘quite a relief’ to hear it wasn’t a shark.

He explained: “We swim there so we wouldn’t want to go that far out if it was a place where a predator was coming along in changing temperatures.

"From the photos it really does look like a shark. I’ve seen three seals before and this is probably the fourth.”

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