It is suspected that the head has been taken by trophy hunters

A desperate appeal has been launched to recover the head of a rare smalltooth sand tiger shark after it washed up on a Hampshire beach in the UK.

The two-metre long shark was initially found on Friday and a historian was contacted to secure and examine the creature.

Unfortunately, before he arrived, the head, tail and fin had been cut off and taken by suspected trophy hunters.

The 44-year-old says he was in London for Mother’s Day when he saw on Twitter that a shark had washed up on his local beach.

After posting something funny about it, he suddenly got bombarded by messages coming saying this creature is incredibly unusual.

The deepwater shark is known to be non-aggressive towards humans and normally frequents warmer waters than the U.K. coastline.

The strictly protected species can grow to four metres in length and weigh up to 290kg.

There are estimated to be fewer than 250 remaining.