Basking Sharks - Neist Point, Skye
Basking Sharks are regularly seen by guests from Seal Haven Cottage in Skye. They love to feed near to headlands, and Neist Point, the most westerly in Skye, is a favourite spot to sight them. Neist point is a short drive from the cottage.  The photgraph below is published courtesy of www.fiskeri.no.

The Basking Shark.

The above picture is of basking sharks cruising just under the surface of the water, and is how you might see them from a vantage point on the rocks. Neist Point is an ideal place to spot this, the second largest fish in the world, after the whale shark, as they come close inshore in their search for plankton. Their feeding involves leisurely swimming along with mouth wide open, as they filter out the plankton from up to 2000 cubic metres of water an hour, thats 2000 tonnes in old money but pretty impressive in anyones language. You might also see the from the shore when you will see the, typically shark shaped dorsal fin cutting through the water followed by the smaller, but still visible tail fin. I remember, as a teenager, seeing a small flottila of shark fins, perhaps four or six, sailing quietly round Uig Bay, in Skye, on a calm summer evening, an impressive sight that I recall vividly to this day. On another occasion, sharks sailed very close to Uig pier, and boys being boys, I poked one with the long bamboo pole that was our fishing gear in those days. This specimen was large, perhaps twenty five feet in length, and was very solid. I doubt he even noticed this teenage intrusion and if he did, gave no inkling of it, gently going about his business.

Location

A recent press report has stated that these massive fish, which can grow to around 12 metres long, have started to breed of the Island of Coll. I think that I am correct in saying this. If so it is good news and will in time contribute to the sightings around Skye. Since the 1960s, I haven't seen nor heard of any sightings here until the last few years. I know that the sharks have been coming to the Firth of Clyde area and in fact there is still a small shark fishery in operation there. A television report a few years ago, as I recall, said that one or two boats, a small number at any rate, were licensed to hunt the shark. I don't know how this will be in the future as there are moves afoot to make the basking shark a protected species in UK waters. When I was a lad, to coin a phrase, one of my (many) boyhood dreams, was to get a small fishing boat and hunt shark in the Minch. This was inspired by the book 'Hebridean Sharker'* by Gavin Maxwell, of 'Ring of Bright Water' fame, who set up a shark fishing station on the Island of Soay, off Skye's south west coast. With his partner, Tex Geddes, Maxwell fished the waters around Neist point, Moonen Bay and out to the Uists, for this magnificent creature. My dreams died sadly, when economics caught up with me, as did Maxwells venture for the same reason. I still look back on these days each time I look out over Moonen Bay, from the Neist Point cliffs. Tex Geddes remained on Soay until his death not many years ago, and by all accounts was an interesting if eccentric character.

Today, of course we are not talking about shark hunting, but of shark conservation. Times have changed and we don't need to hunt everything in the ways that we did in days gone by. This is all to the good and we hope that sightings of the basking shark will continue to increase as time goes by. Visitors to Seal Haven cottage, regularly come back with their stories of seeing the shark at Neist Point, and we hope this will continue.

Norwegian Sharker

f you are interested in seeing how the sharkwas hunted in Norway, visit www.fiskeri.no where the whole process is described with photographs and a video clip. Many basking shark facts are also available there. You may have noticed that the photograph at the top of the page is courtesy of www.fiskeri.no. The photographer has passed away sadly, but the custodian of the basking shark records, Magnus Tangen, has graciously allowed use of the image here. The site is interesting from a Norwegian fishing perspective, but also describes various species of fish which are plentiful in Skye waters. I learned facts about the Pollack, for example which is common around Skye and in Loch Dunvegan, in front of Seal Haven cottage.

Books

*Reference is made above to 'Hebridean Sharker' the book that I recall as detailing Gavin Maxwell's basking shark fishing exploits. It was a small green covered hardback in the style of the time, and I can see it vividly in my mind's eye. It may however, have have been published or republished as 'Harpoon at a Venture' (1952). All of Maxwell's books have been republished at some time or other and paperback versions are readily available of most of his work. Gavin Maxwell and his connection with the Isle of Skye may be the subject of another page here before too long.

Conservation

Conservation was mentioned earlier and there a couple of sites which are worth visiting for more basking shark facts. The Wildlife Trusts Basking Shark Project is an interesting read plus photographs and video. The Save Our Seas Foundation are also running a project with shark facts and sightings. For example there were a recorded 366 sightings of the shark, by the SOS teams in Scotland, between April and October 2007. The largest number in one day was 52, sighted off the island of Coll, which is not too far south of Skye.

Go to our Skye Cottage Links (Skye Angling) page to visit the sites mentioned above.

We hope that you will come Seal Haven cottage and Neist Point when you visit the Isle of Skye.

by Neil Gracie - 25th March 2010

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http://www.saveourseas.com/basking-sharks

http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/baskingsharks  

http://www.fiskeri.no/english/Basking%20Shark.htm.