Skipjack tuna found on the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall

Whilst out on the Lizard Peninsula with his friend Richard, Mark Griffiths, 54 from Porthallow noticed something splashing in the shallow water.

As the two walked closer, they thought it might have been a bluefin tuna, which is a familiar sight in Cornwall.

However, Mark who was a commercial fisherman for 25 years, felt a ‘nagging doubt’ about the fish’s identity.

The rare fish was found on the Lizard Peninsula (Image: Mark Griffiths) “At first I said to Richard that it looked like a tuna,” Mark told the Packet.

“By the time we got to it, it had beached itself and was already half dead. We looked at it and presumed that it was bluefin tuna as there are hundreds of them around.

“But I had this nagging doubt that it wasn’t, but I wasn’t quite sure what it was.”

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He shared a photo of the fish with an online fish identification group, and the response was astounding - it was a skipjack tuna, an incredibly rare sight in UK waters.

"I'd heard of them before, but I never imagined they came anywhere near the UK," Mark explained.

Mark with the skipjack tuna (Image: Mark Griffiths) Skipjack tunas are typically found in warmer waters like the Caribbean and are often sold canned in supermarkets.

Realising the fish wasn't the protected bluefin tuna, Mark and Richard took the deceased skipjack home and weighed it, finding it to be exactly 20 pounds.

Mark who is now a commercial landscape gardener but still has a huge passion for fishing added: “It is so incredibly rare; I think it is the third one to be found and recorded in the UK.

“It just goes to show what else is swimming around out there!”

This isn't the first time a rare species was found in Cornwall waters this year. 

In May, the Packet reported that an extremely blue rare lobster was found by a fisherman just off of Polperro. 

You can read more about this here: Lucky catch! Rare blue lobster found off Cornish coast