7 results for month: 05/2014

Mr Tailor on the Surface in Cardigan Bay!

We now know where Mr Tailor is, a couple of days ago he surfaced about 30km south of Bardsey Island, in Cardigan Bay, off the Welsh coat. This is excellent news as we know that his tag is still on and functioning well. It should still have plenty of battery power left so, hopefully, when he comes to the surface more over the next couple of months, we should get some good locations for him. See the map below for his position on the 25th May 2014.

Mr Tailor Is on the Surface: But WHERE?

Mr Tailor, a 5.5m long male basking shark we satellite tagged on the 8th of June 2013, has just given us tantalising evidence that he is feeding very near the surface. We tagged him off Peel on the Isle of Man on with a SPOT tag donated by DONG Energy. See a video of him just after he was tagged here- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Zc4NVtJm3s&feature=youtu.be He travelled from Manx waters up to NW Scotland. We have had excellent data from him and we know that he fed on the surface off the Isle of Man for some time before sinking beneath the waves and re-appearing off NW Scotland and feeding at the surface there for a long time. We hadn't ...

Basking Sharks Spotted off Derbyhaven and Glen Maye/ Dalby

Excellent! We now have a minimum of 2 basking sharks as one has been spotted off Derbyhaven 2 days running and we have multiple reports of a basking shark in the Niarbyl/ Dalby/ Glen Maye are. SO, we either have 2 sharks total or 2 up at any one time and lots lurking underneath just waiting for some sunnier weather to bring their food, the zooplankton, to the surface where we can watch the sharks feeding on them. Fingers crossed for a great basking shark season! Great photo of the Derbyhaven basking shark from Peter Christian.  

First Basking Shark of 2014 Spotted off Niarbyl on May 19th!

I am delighted to report that Jen Adams of The Manx Whale and Dolphin Watch spotted the first basking shark of the year off Niarbyl on 19th May at 11:00. It was 1.5km offshore and they watched it for 40 minutes. May there be many more!

Basking Sharks here any day soon?

This time last year we had started the first early flush of basking sharks and, given the warm sunny weather we've had for the last few days I would have expected them to have started popping up to the surface this week. No reports yet but let's all keep looking! They should be here soon.

A little video about marine plastics

The Basking Sharks are Off Cornwall and Tagged Sharks are off the Irish Coast: Here Next?

We expect our first basking sharks in Manx waters in the next week or so. I am scanning the seas at the moment. A large group  of basking sharks has been seen off Cornwall see- http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/conservationists-rejoice-as-cornwall-is-awash-with-basking-sharks-9346820.html Also, some of the basking tagged by Dr Matt Witt's team, in Scottish waters, last summer have returned from southern waters and are off the Irish coast. See the following links to see maps of where 4 of his tagged sharks are WOMBLE is in the Celtic Deep http://www.seaturtle.org/tracking/index.shtml?tag_id=129445&full=1&lang= SUMMER is ...