HomeLocalWoman believes she spotted 'shark fin' off Sussex coast - expert gives...

Woman believes she spotted ‘shark fin’ off Sussex coast – expert gives verdict

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A woman spotted a strange shape in the sea which she believed was a shark’s fin.

Rebecca Hoibak, 28, was on a stroll along Worthing Pier with a friend when she saw something odd in the sea on Thursday evening, March 26.

She said: “There was something sticking out of the water.

“I thought ‘what’s that’. I thought it was a buoy at first but it was really misshapen.

“I got my phone out and zoomed in.

“It was moving very slowly and along the coastline.

“I was like ‘come on let’s walk along the promenade and see if we can see what it is’.”

A woman believes she spotted a shark fin near Worthing Pier (Image: Rebecca Hoibak)

Ms Hoibak, who lives in Newbury but grew up in Goring, thought it could have been a whale or a dolphin with a “triangular shaped fin”.

She asked her dad to bring his binoculars and after closer inspection, thought it “looked like a shark”.

“I have heard that there are sharks in our waters anyway,” she added.

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However, Ms Hoiback said she “couldn’t be 100 per cent sure” and it “might have been a seal”, but it “looked quite impressive”.

She said: “It’s not every day you see something like that.”

Sussex Wildlife Trust marine conservation officer Sarah Ward said: “This looks like a seal, probably a grey seal.

“The head of a resting grey seal can be mistaken for a shark’s dorsal fin.

“This is because when seals are resting at sea, they bob around in the water with only their head or back above the surface.

“This is called ‘bottling’.

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