Ahoy! I sight a FIN!

Phew, the basking shark season has crept up on me a bit this year, I can't believe it's June already, and it's not long at all before we will be on the waves with our good friends at Sea Life Surveys based out of Tobermory to look for basking sharks. This is truly an incredible experience, and every year I am astounded that we have such an incredible migration of gargantuan marine creatures happening on our doorstep. The area itself in something equally special, beautiful islands, bays and lochs teeming with more wildlife than anyone can imagine. I will be posting updates from the trips here as and when I can jump high enough on deck to get a telephone signal. Watch this space!

It's the Irish in them!

A shark that one of my groups sighted last week has been confirmed by the Irish Basking Shark Project as having been tagged on the 20th of April off the coast of Ireland. This is the first international re-sighting for that project for 2011.
The shark was sighted during difficult conditions. The week had been challenging with unseasonal brisk winds delivering a heavy swell, and a particularly inclement day at the beginning of the week had kept the food sources deep below the surface. Any shark sightings for the following three days had frustrated us buy showing only fleeting glimpses at numerous spots all around the coast of Coll.
Out of necessity, on day four, I sat atop the cairns of coll taking an unusual strategy for us of static coastal observations, with the chance that some of these fleeting glimpses develop into some prolonged feeding. I remember my teenage years spent angling, and know all too well that the number one law governing fish behaviour is sods law.
Only thirty minutes into my observation, this unmistakably large fin appeared on the surface very close to the coast, and continued to feed for a good 30 minutes within a tight pattern about the size of a football pitch.
Frustrating lack of phone signal meant that I could not let the boat know for about half an hour, and by the time they had headed south and turned about again, it was another hour before they got to the feeding area.

When the photographers got to the area, they could see that there was a very localised bloom of plankton, and also large numbers of lions mane jellyfish and also a lot of comb jellies. We have noticed that these two types of jellies seem to be present with feeding sharks and could be predating on the same types of plankton.
Alex Mustard was shooting some underwater shots for the 2020 Vision Project and managed to get a clear shot of the tag that was later confirmed with the Irish Basking Shark Project.

Such information is essential to understanding the lives of sharks and how we can best protect them. National legislation is only effective within that countries waters. Once the sharks leave sovereign waters, usually only a few miles from the coast, they can only be protected by international legislation, which is sparse, when it comes to sharks.

Basking Sharks Galore!!

In early August we headed up to Scotland for another dose of Basking Shark action, with hopefully another set of memorable encounters like those we had in 2009. The recession has certainly had an impact on firm bookings for this year, though with plenty of enquiries for next year, when hopefully at least the world's money worries will be a fading memory. I'm not altogether sure that the sharks will be any better, because, without wishing to wear out any superlatives, this year they were nothing less than blinking well gloriously amazing, incredible, AND spectacular. There you go, I didn't use too many, I didn't even say "stunning".


As ever our hearty Captain Fairbairns was up for the adventure and no sea would be too stormy, no wind too foul, no rain too watery(!?), to keep us from our quest. The site that eluded us last year proved to be this years hotspot. We had already spied one shark on leaving port, but we were not prepared for the sight that greeted us at the southern end of our destination island.

Some 40 sharks circled the spacious bay, and we only had to stay in one spot and patiently wait for them to circle. They were in full feeding mode, circling down current and then back up again ready to pose for us in some of their legendary mouth open passes.



We tried our our new itinerary modification this year and camped on some beaches to leave us closer to the action for the next day's work. We learned a few of the ideosynchrasies of beach camping in the process, and let ourselves be well prepared to offer this as a full product for the 2011 season. Look out for the new itinerary and lower prices to be posted on the Acuatours site soon.

Next up: The Giant Manta Rays of Ecuador. Supported by the Save Our Seas Foundation.