Rare creature with a long tail fin washed up on a South African beach. Take a look

A South African wildlife photographer was out on Sunset Beach when he came across something unusual.

A small shark, with an incredibly long tail fin, was washed up on the beach.

“It’s not often we get to see this remarkable shark,” the photographer, Alex Aitkenhead, told IOL, a news site in South Africa.

The rare sighting was a juvenile thresher shark, Aitkenhead said in a Facebook post.

Thresher sharks are a group of three shark species that are known for their “long, scythe-like tails that account for half their body length,” according to Shark Advocates International.

Their tails aren’t just for show.

Thresher sharks are “aggressive predators” that use their tail to hit and stun fish species, knocking them out before taking a bite, according to NOAA Fisheries.

The sharks have a large environmental range, reaching from the North Atlantic to the central Pacific, but they are not common to South Africa, Shark Advocates International says.

Deputy Mayor of Cape Town Eddie Andrews told IOL that the last time a thresher shark washed ashorewas multiple years ago in Strand, 30 miles outside the city.