THIS is the heart-stopping moment a holidaymaker comes face-to-face with a huge SHARK while snorkelling in Cornwall.
Keen wildlife photographer Martin Yelland captured the moment the blue shark, which can measure up to 13ft, swam just inches away from him off the coast in Penzance.
The man can be seen snorkelling right next to the marine creature in the jaw-dropping pictures.
Martin, a postman from St Erth, told the Sun Online: "It was an adrenaline rush.
"The blues are extremely inquisitive coming right into you, allowing great photo opportunities and was an amazing experience."
Despite the nerves of being so close to the mighty creature, Martin says that he's already planning to head out into the Cornish waters to spot the sharks again.
He added: "I’m a postman and have always done surf and more recently wildlife photography.
"But the blue sharks was another level. I've booked another shark snorkel next week."
Blue sharks are hunters and have been known to attack humans – but this is relatively rare.
The animals are reported to circle swimmers or divers for 15 minutes or more before going in for a bite – they are "not overly aggressive" but should be approached with caution.
In Britain, blue sharks are generally found in the slightly warmer water of the southwest of England, although they can turn up elsewhere and have been sighted to the north of the British Isles.
This comes after a summer of close encounters with sharks along the British coastline.
Earlier this week, a shark was seen leaping out of the sea in front of a stunned photographer off the Welsh coast.
The long-tailed thresher shark, which can be up to 25ft long, was snapped making the spectacular leap near Strumble Head, Pembrokeshire.
Snapper Ken Barnett of the Sea Trust was lucky to capture the amazing show.
He said: "Such a great sight to see this thresher shark leave the water at Strumble Head."
The mighty animal was seen leaping out of the water, as its tail grazed the surface before splashing back under.
This is a rare sighting of a thresher shark in UK waters – as they generally stay far offshore over deeper water.
This comes just days after a fisherman grappled with a "monster shark" that sparked terror at a beach – saying he's "never seen anything like it in 13 years".
Darron Tapper, 54, said the shark pulled his fishing rod out of his hands and almost dragged him in with it when it went for his lure.
He saw a large shadow under the surface but was unable to properly identify the creature although he believes it may have been a shark due to the sheer power of its bite.
Darron returned to Boscombe beach in Bournemouth, Dorset to alert lifeguards.
By that time they had received two other reports from bathers of what was suspected to be a shark in the water off the busy beach.
The sightings prompted an RNLI lifeguard to use a megaphone to tell everybody to get out of the water in scenes reminiscent of the classic movie Jaws.
They also put up red flags on the beach – the RNLI's signal to warn swimmers of a serious hazard in the water.
What is a blue shark?
A blue shark is a sleek, elegant species that has beautiful metallic blue backs which provide brilliant camouflage out in the open ocean.
They are slim torpedo-shaped sharks with a blue colouration on top and white underneath, along with distinctively long pectoral fins.
Blue sharks are hunters – they feed mostly mackerel and herring as well as squid and sometimes hunt larger fish such as cod, pollock and coalfish.
They can usually be spotted around the South West coast of England in the summer months, normally 10+ miles offshore.
Blue sharks have been known to attack humans but they could hardly be described as frequent "man-eaters".
The predators have been implicated in precious few attacks on humans.
Since the year 1580 blue sharks have been thought to have been involved in just 13 biting incidents with only four of those being fatal.
Blue sharks have been reported to circle swimmers or divers for 15 minutes or more before going in for a bite.
Two lifeguards on jet-skis patrolled the water to search for the 'large marine life' but found nothing untoward.
And then later on in the same day, a dad claimed his son is “lucky to be alive” after a "shark" in Bournemouth “brushed past his leg” in a terrifying sea encounter.
Alan Hayward, 48, was watching his kids, Henry, 11, and Mollie, 8, playing in the sea when they started running towards him, jokingly shouting “run for your life."
Son Henry claimed to have felt something big brush against him while they were playing in the water – and Alan has since realised his family snap shows a 'fin' lurking in the sea.
The family from Oakton, Kent, had travelled to Boscombe for a day-trip as part of their week away.
Alan told The Sun: “We decided to take the kids down to the beach for the day, and it wasn’t until later on that we saw online the beach was closed and then we looked through our photos and saw that, and saw the fin going through the water.
“He was in the water and he came running out with his sister, and she was shouting “let’s run for our lives” but just as a joke, and he said something had brushed past him.
“We laughed at him just thinking it was a bit of seaweed and it wasn’t until we got home that we were looking through our photos and we saw that shark, or what looks like a shark in the background.
“I just thought what’s that, and then when we zoomed in we could see the dorsal fin.
“He was extremely lucky to be honest, I think he's lucky to be alive.
“He could have got a nip on the ankle, or a nip on the calf, or even worse it could have been even worse.
“She said jokingly to him “let's run for our lives” and it was just super lucky.
“At least we can laugh about it now, it’s terrifying and I mean he’s braver than me, I don’t know what I would have done.”
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