'Never Seen One Like That,' Fisherman Who Caught Albino All-White Shark Off Britain Released It Back Into Sea

For 50-year-old fisherman Jason Gillespie, it was a rare first to have caught an albino all-white shark one day. He was deep-sea fishing near the Isle Of Wight on Tuesday along with some friends when he made the marvellous catch, claims reports.

Any Jaws references will seem almost forced at this point but this is an incredible catch truly. The three-foot-long all-white tope shark is said to be leucistic which means its skin is devoid of any pigment.

Gillespie family/SWNS via Daily Mail

"I've been fishing for 30 years and I've never seen one like that. apparently it's a condition where the pigment dies out of the skin colour. It's similar to an albino, but they have red eyes generally," Gillespie, who hails from Waterlooville, Hampshire, told Daily Mail in an interview.

"I caught it on Tuesday, off the Isle of Wight - what're the chances? I have no idea. It's the fish of a lifetime, one in a million. I've certainly never seen one, it's been on Facebook since Tuesday and no one else has come forward and said they have caught one," he went on to explain.

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Gillespie family/SWNS via Daily Mail

Gillespie further added that such sharks often struggle to survive since they can't camouflage as effectively and are easily spotted by predators. Not to mention the fact that they're an endangered species, so what Gillespie did is appreciated.

'With tope, they are a protected species, so we unhook them in the water, but the minute we saw this one I shouted to my mate to grab the net and knew I needed to get some photos of it so we pulled her on board and took some pictures. We released her as quick as possible, she was only on the boat for less than a minute,' he said.

"I was so intrigued by the shark ¨C it¡¯s so unique and I just wanted to share the photographs."

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Gillespie family/SWNS via Daily Mail

Perhaps the only other such shark specimen talked about in recent literature is the "extremely rare" albino shark discovered in Auckland Museum. The rediscovery of the albino Lucifer's dogfish happened after certain specimens stored at the museum were studied again.

It was in 2018 when Dr Brittany Finucci, a fisheries scientist at NIWA, was studying some specimens when this particular shark caught her eye because it didn't have any pigment, reports stuff.co.nz.

Finucci went on to explain that while albinism is well documented in humans and other species, certain deep sea creatures like these sharks have not had that honour.

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