Forklift Used to Remove Monster Shark That Washed Up on U.K. Beach

The carcass of a massive, 24-foot shark washed up on a beach in Scotland over the weekend, and the animal was so enormous that a forklift was later required to remove it from the scene.

Beachgoer Yolanda McCall first spotted the shark when she saw it bobbing and swaying in the waters off of Maidens Beach on the eastern coast of Scotland on Sunday. McCall initially suspected the creature to be a whale, and contacted teams from the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDLMR) and Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS).

"The creature was bobbing around in the water and we couldn’t tell if it was dead or alive," McCall later recalled to the U.K. news outlet What's the Jam. "I wanted to try to help it, if it was alive and floundering, so I put on a wetsuit and got in the water to check."

Forklift needed to haul away massive 24-foot shark that washed up on UK beach https://t.co/fAcOiMnPuS pic.twitter.com/bTrG8MrvT7

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Officials later identified the animal as a basking shark, or "Toothless Bruce," the second largest living species of fish or shark found in the ocean after the whale shark. Despite their enormous size—basking sharks can reach up to 30 feet in length—these sharks don't have teeth, are harmless to humans, and eat only plankton. They're also classified as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

"It was tangled in a long loop of rope, in its mouth and caught around its tail," McCall explained. "Maybe it got tired trying to free itself."

Eventually, the teams called in a forklift to remove the shark from the beach after the carcass fully washed up on the sand. It's unclear what became of it, or if it were taken to a lab for an autopsy.

“Sadly it was dead, but it looked very complete, a recent death," McCall added. "After the tide went out, we could see the full beautiful big creature. [It was] very sad."