Connswater shark sighting was ‘quite a surprise’

A man has said he “couldn’t believe” what he was seeing when he came across a shark swimming in an east Belfast river.

Thomas Davidson was cycling through Victoria Park on Tuesday evening when he spotted a 4ft-long starry smooth-hound shark in the Connswater River, where the waterway meets Belfast Lough.

The species of shark has been seen in other urban areas such as the River Thames and the River Mersey estuary.

Dr Patrick Collins, a marine biologist at Queen’s University, said while “it’s not something you see everyday, it’s not something super unusual either”.

“In the past I would occasionally have seen several 2-3lb mullet follow the tide in, but on this occasion I saw a much larger shape in the water adjacent to Airport Road,” Mr Davidson told BBC News NI.

He said this shape was “too big to be a mullet”, so he stopped to take a closer look.

“A dorsal fin slowly broke the surface revealing that familiar profile that looked like a shark,” he said.

“I quickly took out my phone and started to video this slow-moving fish as it meandered left and right up and downstream, getting mobbed by a few gulls.

“I couldn’t believe what I was watching.”

The shark continued swimming in this section of river for about 30 minutes before moving upstream into a shadow area and Mr Davidson lost sight of it.

“I felt very lucky to witness such a lengthy sighting and was left curious as to how far upstream it might go,” he said.

The Connswater River rises in the Castlereagh hills and runs northwards through east Belfast, getting wider until it reaches the sea at Belfast Lough.

The river route includes the Connswater Greenway walking route and flows past CS Lewis Square and Connswater Shopping Centre.

Mr Davidson said he will “continue to look out for it and others in the future”.

This type of shark mainly eat crabs and small crustaceans, marine biologist Dr Patrick Collins said.

The section of the river in Victoria Park probably contained crabs, and so this shark spotted by Mr Davidson was “probably just having its lunch”, he explained.

He said it is “not very common to find smooth-hounds in cities, but they have been recorded in the last few years”.

“It’s a little bit unusual if you’re walking your dog to find one that close to the city, and that easy to see, but they’re not a rare animal,” Dr Collins continued.

“They’re found fairly commonly across the UK and Ireland. It’s not an unusual occurrence to have them close to an urban centre because there’s sea water there.

“It’s a bit like seeing a deer in farmland.”

He added that this type of shark poses no risk to the public.

“Because of movies like Jaws and some other strange public perceptions coming from that, there’s this idea that all sharks are dangerous animals – they’re a type of fish.

“These animals pose absolutely no threat to us whatsoever.”