Warming Arctic draws marine predators northwards

The porbeagle (‘porpoise-beagle’?) is the reigning apex predator of our seas. But are its days on the throne numbered?

Kevin Purves (left) and Dr Jenny Bortoluzz holding a small tooth sand tiger shark, which washed up on the shores of Co Wexford, scientists believe to it be the first official record of the species in Irish waters. The shark is rarely seen by humans as it normally lives offshore in waters more than 100m deep. At 14 feet long, the female shark discovered in Wexford is at the upper end of the size limits for the species. Picture: Trinity College Dublin/Dr Jenny Bortoluzzi and Kevin Purves/PA Wire

'By the creek of Baginbun, Ireland was lost and won'

In 1170 Raymond ’Le Gros’ is said to have landed, with a hundred men, 12km to the west of Kilmore Quay. A tourist, walking along the beach near there recently, came on the remains of a huge fish. The carcase turned out to be that of a sand tiger shark, a species new to Irish waters. It was April 1, but this was no Fool’s Day joke. Another sand tiger, the first for Britain, had been found on Lepe Beach, Hampshire, in March. The arrival of these giants prompts an intriguing question; is a shark version of the Norman Invasion underway?