A great white shark has been spotted in a marine park in Spain’s Balearic Islands, in the first confirmed sighting of the predator in Spanish waters for more than four decades. 

The five-metre (16.4 ft) shark was tracked for more than an hour by an international conservation team in the Cabrera Archipelago National Park, a reserve six miles off the southern coast of Majorca. 

The team from Alnitak, a Spanish conservation project with researchers from several European countries including the United Kingdom, published an image of the shark following the “historic sighting” on Thursday. 

The organisation said it would be releasing more footage and images later on Friday.