It was a perfect sunny morning. Cornish fishermen Chris Earl and Tony Allsopp were chugging out to sea on their boat, Spilgarn, to check on their lobster pots.
And then the deer, all antlers and big worried eyes, swam past. "It's not the sort of creature you expect to see half a mile out," said Mr Earl yesterday.
"At first I thought it was a big log but then as we got closer we saw its legs were moving and realised it was a deer."
The deer was off Portreath beach, near a small island called Gull Rock but was heading further up the north Cornwall coast. The RSPCA believes it may have come from Tehidy woods a few miles away, where there is a population of deer. They are decent swimmers but it is thought Mr Earl's deer must have fallen into the sea.
Mr Earl and Mr Allsopp got alongside the frightened animal, lassoed it and hauled it on board by the antlers. "Luckily it wasn't the biggest of animals or we wouldn't have had a chance. It was about the size of a big dog. It was a good job the sea was flat calm. If there had been a swell we wouldn't have seen the deer."
Not having anywhere to keep a deer aboard, Mr Allsopp sat on it as they headed back to port. They managed to get it into the back of Mr Earl's van when they got back to harbour despite the animal becoming a little agitated. The RSPCA later released it in Tehidy woods.
The catch was the talk of Portreath yesterday. One fisherman remembered plucking a piglet out of the bay. But nobody could remember a deer being landed.
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