A very recognisable shape; a feeding Basking Shark (this is not yesterdays animal)
Wednesday 5th July comments: Its a shark…but before the headline writers start shouting about killer sharks in British waters, we are here to tell you about the gentle giant which was seen yesterday off the Isle of May.
Yesterday morning Dylan Daunt discovered a Basking Shark feeding off the north tip of the island, the first sighting since 2015. These large sharks (pictured) are actually fish and can reach lengths of 8m (26ft), weighing up to 6 tonnes! They are actually the second largest fish in the world but despite the animals size, the sharks are exclusively plankton eaters as they move slow near the waters surface, filtering plankton. This is also how they got their name, as they appear at the surface and were thought to be basking. As a result they are noticeable especially as the large black dorsal fin breaks the surface as they feed.
Although they can be found worldwide, in a British context they are commonly found in summer between April-September favouring the warmer seas of the west coast. They are less common on the east coast and this was the first sighting on the Isle of May since 2015. Interestingly this has coincided with the recent marine heatwave and the warming of the North Sea in this area… a coincidence or yet further proof things are changing?
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