A well-travelled shark was an unexpected catch for a Shetland boat fishing about 40 miles east of Lerwick.
Later identified as a starry smooth-hound shark, it turned out the tagged but dead fish had swum at least 550 miles before skipper Bobby Sandison and his crew on the Arcturus hauled it aboard.
It is one of only three among about 3,000 smooth-hounds tagged off the Dutch coast that have been caught in northern waters of the North Sea.
The shark had previously been caught and tagged by the crew of a sea-angling boat, the Big Marlin, off the coast of Zeeland in the south-west of the Netherlands on July 20, 2013.
During the 876 days that elapsed before it was caught by the Arcturus in an area known as the east by south hole the smooth-hound travelled hundreds of miles and grew more than 10 inches to 33.5inches.
Full-grown smooth-hounds reach about 55 inches.
The crew noticed the fish was tagged, so took it to the NAFC Marine Centre at Scalloway.
An NAFC Marine Centre spokeswoman said: “Information on the tag led NAFC staff to the Dutch sport-fishing organisation Sportvisserij Nederland.
“Niels Brevd of Sportvisserij Nederland reported that of about 3,000 starry smooth-hounds tagged off the Dutch coast 125 have been recaptured, mostly in the southern North Sea.
“Only two other tagged smooth-hounds have been caught from the northern North Sea.”
Starry smooth-hounds are a shallow water shark species, which favour sandy and shingly seabeds at depths of less than 330ft.
They occur from Norway to west Africa, including in waters around the UK and in the Mediterranean. Although not common in Scottish waters, they are regularly caught around Shetland.