Basking Sharks

by David Ainsley

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Growing up to 10 metres long and weighing up to 7 tons the basking shark is the largest fish in Scottish Waters. On calm sunny, summer days they can be seen ‘basking’ at the surface, feeding on plankton. A 7 metre shark can filter 330, 000 gallons of water per hour. Little is known about their reproduction but they are thought to have only one or two young after a three and a half year pregnancy. I work a dive charter boat in the Firth of Lorne but rarely see basking sharks. In this area there were three sightings this year, one of which was of a shark tangled in a fleet of creels.

A few years ago we came across a group of eleven basking sharks. It was a calm day in June and there was a plankton bloom. After a rush to prepare the camera, using Kodachrome 64 and a 28mm lens, and get kitted up, I was dropped among the group. The boat pulled away leaving me alone with my thoughts. I could see the floppy back and tail fins of an approaching shark. It was heading straight for me. I dropped below the surface and waited. The fish appeared through the gloom, jaws open, like a mobile railway tunnel. At the last moment it turned away. It swam with the lazy, almost eel-like flexing of its back, swimming flat out I couldn’t keep up for long. I returned to the surface gasping for breath. The sharks seemed unafraid and I was able to swim with others in the same way.

This was a great experience for me, I hope that these harmless creatures will still exist when my children learn to dive. At present a fisherman in the Clyde takes between 10 and 100 sharks each year. The Norwegians have a quota of between 800 and 1000 sharks per year which they fish for around the British Isles. Although current quotas are low, the fact that a quota exists represents a major threat to the continued existence of the basking shark.

If you see a Basking Shark the Marine Conservation Society would like to hear about it.