A wildlife ranger captured amazing footage of an endangered basking shark – as it swam along next to him.
Craig Nisbet, 42, spotted a shark fin in the water and watched the animal swimming around before grabbing his snorkelling gear and camera in the hope of photographing it at Village Bay on the island of Hirta, Outer Hebrides.
Basking sharks are the world's second largest fish, after whale sharks, growing up 10m long. But despite their size the harmless sharks only feed on plankton which they filter out of the water, swimming slowly back and forth with their mouths wide open.
Craig said: "It was exhilarating rather than scary to be in the water so close to it. I returned to land, scarcely able to believe what I'd just seen.”
