IS the seal the real deal - or is it a lone shark?
A debate has flared over the sighting of a mystery sea creature off the Little Orme, with eyewitnesses and experts unable to agree on the species of the unidentified fishy object.
Pictures of the creature were taken by Tony Costa, 62, a semi-professional Llandudno based photographer who had been walking his dog on the Little Orme when he spotted what he believed to be the fin of a basking shark breaking the surface.
Mr Costa insisted that he had seen a basking shark, given the size of the creature.
He said: “It wasn’t a seal. It was five feet under the water. The way it was swimming - it moved and turned circles, and it was absolutely huge.”
But Danielle Gibas, sightings officer with the Sea Watch Foundation, identified the ‘fin’ as the head of a seal.
She said: “They tend to rest in a vertical position with just their heads sticking out of the water. This behaviour is called ‘bottling’. They are often mistaken for other animals when they are doing this.”
The sighting comes among a number of other reports of creatures spotted off the Welsh coast submitted to the Sea Watch Foundation throughout the year, including 158 sightings of whales and dolphins.
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Have you spotted any unidentifiable sea beasties in the waters off Llandudno or Colwyn Bay? Have your say on your comments section below.