Fishmonger outrages customers by selling endangered SHARK as catch of the day Online pictures of dead shark spark offence among animal lovers Fishmonger Mat Carter apologised after posing with endangered animal 250kg fish was caught accidentally and was legal to sell A fishmonger has sparked outrage after selling steaks from a 15ft endangered thresher shark, and then bragging about it on Facebook. Mat Carter put the 250kg fish on sale on his fish counter after it was caught accidentally by a sprat trawler. He bought it for £80 and then displayed it with fruit in its jaws, before uploading pictures of it online at his Greendale Farm Shop in Farringdon, Devon. An impassioned debate has broken out after the owner of a farm shop in Devon decided to sell-off a rare shark which has been identified as being at risk of extinction Mat posted images of the shark laid on an ice-packed fish counter on the store's Facebook page. One post on the company's page read: 'Who's coming to buy our thresher shark steaks tomorrow? A 15ft beast landed at Brixham market. Our fishmongers really are very lucky! Mat Carter of Greendale Farm Shop near Exeter, has made a remorseful defence of his decision to sell the 250kg, 15ft thresher shark after it was landed at Brixham Fish Market as ìbycatchî and has apologised for causing offence Bad taste? How the endangered shark was displayed in the fishmonger's shop He sold around £250 worth of steaks from the shark - but then drew angry comments from animal lovers and realised that he had bitten off more than he could chew. All three thresher shark species have been recently listed as vulnerable to extinction by the World Conservation Union. Mat posted images of the endangered shark laid on an ice-packed fish counter on the store's Facebook page Within hours of promoting the sale of the shark Mat took his pictures down following a backlash of complaints he was 'glorifying' in the death of the animal. Mr Carter has since apologised and said he made the decision to buy the shark because it would have otherwise been 'wasted' and thrown into landfill. He said: 'When the shark was hauled up it was dead. No one was bidding on it. 'They wouldn't have sold it otherwise. It was a beautiful animal and I thought it deserved better than to be thrown away. Mr Carter said he had to hire a fork lift truck and a lorry to transport the shark, the cost of which was more than he made from selling the steaks. A thresher shark breaches off Bar Harbour in Maine USA Like all large sharks, threshers are highly vulnerable to overfishing. In the past the species has been hunted for its meat, liver oil, skin (for leather) and for use in shark fin soup. In some parts of the world thresher sharks are still considered prize game - particularly in America and South Africa. Although it was not illegal for Mr Carter to sell the shark, some believed that - given its vulnerability - the act was in poor taste.