Incredible video shows ‘swordfish’ swimming off Portobello coast

An incredible video shows what is thought to be a swordfish swimming just off the Portobello coast.

The video was taken by Edinburgh resident and marine biologist Katie O’Neil, who saw an alert on Facebook group Forth Marine Mammals that said a basking shark had been spotted just off the coast.

After skipping dinner and grabbing a mask, Katie headed to the coast and was able to video what was initially described as a basking shark.

She explained: “Just the very tip of a dorsal fin glinting in the sun was visible, though this fin was sickle shaped and not at all like the tell-tail triangular form of a Basking Shark dorsal.

“The footage showed for certain it wasn't a basking shark, and talking amongst the marine biologists there, as well as remotely on the Facebook group, we determined it was almost certainly a swordfish.

“This may be only the 3rd or 4th sighting of a swordfish in Scottish waters, weirdly, all but one of which have been in the Firth of Forth. This exciting sighting just highlights what many locals are beginning to realise, that Forth is a wonderful place to view wildlife and you never know what you might see.”

The sighting comes at the same time as Bottlenose dolphins being spotted off the coast of Scotland

The dolphins were seen in the Tay Estuary and off the coast of Fife by a surveying team from the University of St Andrews.

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