Rare sight of basking shark off Northumberland coast

Posted by Northumberland Wildlife Trust on Sep 8, 11 08:30 AM in Bloggers

Basking shark off the Northumberland coast By Conservation Officer Kevin O'Hara

I read earlier that apparently a leading shark expert reckons it is possible for great white sharks to be present in British waters.

Indeed the closest verified great white shark was captured off La Rochelle, western France, a mere 200 miles south of the UK. However, because of its globally- threatened status, this is very unlikely as there are so few left anywhere.

Declines are more than 50% in some species in just a few recent years throughout the North Atlantic.

This is disgraceful but hardly surprising as it is of little interest to most.

A friend of mine has a boat, a local boat, a coble. A fine seaworthy craft, we often head out into the deep blue sea to take our chances with its fishy occupants. But this day was a real cracker and one to brighten anyone's day.

When I was kid, it was common local knowledge that big fish lurked off our coast.
We knew little of what they were save they were 'ginormous' and they were 'sharks'.

In my early teens I learned they were harmless basking sharks and if you went to the top of the cliffs you could get better views looking down, watching them cut through the waters, their noses poking up as they sucked in anything that swam their way.

That was the last time I saw them saw save for one individual caught in a friend's salmon net some years later which he swore he would kill for ruining his net until his dying day in true Hemingway style many years later.

So it was then with great surprise and expectation that last week, while on the boat, when a young passenger shouted 'shark' we all looked up and scanned the waves.
There they were, not one but three black triangular fins cutting through the water, straight toward us.

Our engine was off, we were drifting silently when the great beasts came within touching distance.

Reaching forth I ran my hand along the smooth ridge of the dorsal fin of a basking shark some 7m in length.

Its eye peered up through the water as it passed by, where I'm sure it winked, and we all looked at each other dumbstruck as the magnificent creatures continued their plankton-sipping trip southward towards where we watched them as children.

The skipper, a man on the sea more than the land, retorted that he had not seen basking sharks for 25 years nor had he heard of many others. We watched them for some 30 minutes as they headed inshore in a southerly direction before we really started to get excited about the views we had just been privileged to witness.

Fishing was hopeless after that so we sailed home with smiles as wide as a - well, what else - a basking shark's mouth.

Why not support Northumberland Wildlife Trust's 40th anniversary Marine and Coastal Appeal? For details contact Christine O'Neil on 0191 284 6884.

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