Lifeguards cleared a British beach following the sighting of a large shark patrolling the waters. The RNLI lifeguards used loudspeakers to instruct individuals to exit the water at St Ouen’s Bay, Jersey after the shark was spotted multiple times on Saturday morning. Described as dark grey and measuring approximately 10ft to 12ft (3m to 3.6m) in length, it prompted the closure of the beach for the first time in Jersey’s history and one of the rare instances in the British Isles.

Tom Rolls, a local lifeguard, expressed disbelief upon receiving the alert from a colleague further down the coast. Initially skeptical, he recounted the colleague’s insistence on the multiple public sightings of the shark, leading to the deployment of red flags and a PA system for beach evacuation. The beach was reopened about an hour later without any reported injuries.

In a separate incident in June, a 4.3-meter-long (14ft) smalltooth sand tiger shark washed up on Grève d’Azette beach in Jersey, not far from the recent sighting location. Despite initial faint signs of life, attempts by responders from British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR), Jersey Coastguard, and Marine Resources to revive the shark were unsuccessful, and it passed away shortly after.

Sand tiger sharks are commonly found in tropical and subtropical waters like the Mediterranean. Another evacuation due to a large marine animal occurred in August 2021 at Boscombe and Bournemouth beaches in Dorset, which was later identified as a harmless basking shark. Similarly, in July 2012, surfers and swimmers were evacuated from Croyde Bay in Devon after a sighting of a large fin believed to be from a basking shark within a safe swimming zone, prompting RNLI lifeguards’ precautionary measures.