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Saturday afternoon on Marbella's Golden Mile was going fairly normally until a massive tuna appeared in the shallows at El Ancón beach, near the well-known Victor's Beach bar and restaurant, and sent bathers scrambling in all directions.

 

The fish, which weighed around 295 kilograms and measured more than two metres in length, was visibly injured, bleeding from its gills as it moved erratically through the shallow water. Witnesses believe it may have been struck by a jet ski or caught up in fishing gear further out at sea, which would explain both the wound and why it had ended up so close to shore in an apparently disoriented state.

 

The initial reaction from those in the water was predictable. With a large fin cutting through the surface and the sea turning red around the animal, more than a few people made straight for the beach. "If I was that swimmer I would have died from a heart attack. It looks like a shark," one onlooker commented afterwards. Someone else referenced Jaws: "All that was missing was the music."

 

Once it became clear the fish was not a threat but a creature in serious trouble, the mood shifted. Beachgoers gathered around it as it thrashed in the shallows and worked out what to do. British expat Jade Bloomberg waded in to check whether it was tangled in a net. "It was huge, so beautiful," she said afterwards. "It was in so much distress, I went into the water to see if it was tangled in a net or if it had something inside but nothing."

 

In the end, people used sun loungers and deck chairs to manoeuvre the fish back towards deeper water, and it eventually made it back out to sea.

 

The footage circulated widely on social media, with reactions ranging from genuine concern to the inevitable jokes. "That tuna is worth more than my car," wrote one user. Another pointed out that tuna are actually not uncommon close to the Spanish coast and are sometimes mistaken for dolphins.

For most of those on the beach that afternoon, though, it was a Saturday they probably won't forget in a hurry.

 

 

Image: Edited with AI