We are very pleased to have a special film crew here from France.

They are contributing to a film about marine wildlife that has been 5 years in the making. They are staying here for about 10 days. Mal Kelly is taking them out in his boat Fiollan Beg. They have had some wonderful encounters so far. We look forward to seeing some of the footage.

Some of their stunning previous productions are "Le Peuple Migrateur' about migratory birds, Himalaya and Microcosms. see more on www.studiocanal.com

Mal Kellys account of what he thinks might be a pair of mating basking sharks off Contrary Head, Peel, Isle of Man, July 6th 2008. Mal runs the boat Fiollan Beg out of Peel. Three or four pairs were in close courtship (nose to tail following at less than one quarter of a shark body length) about half a mile off Contrary Head for possibly two hours, feeding but obviously teasing. Suddenly one pair started thrashing about in the water, very close together, with one tail coming completely out of the water. That was the most action but the water was agitated under the surface for up to a minute after with obvious action just under the surface. This was all taking place in a small area just 20m from the boat. At the conclusion the pair swam of in courting formation as before but started swimming South which suggested to me that this area off Contrary maybe a favourite courtship area. I have seen them here before. The pair I reported doing the same thing about three weeks ago were just inside this area.

3rd July 2008 What a day for Basking Sharks, maybe it has something to do with the new moon. For the first time in a fortnight, the weather was really good for shark watching and we set up our telescope at about seven in the morning, A mother Harbour Porpoise and her calf swimming slowly and peacefully off the harbour mouth at Port St Mary. The phone rang and some neighbours had seen a large shark in Perwick Bay just off Kallow point. Sure enough, there it was slowly swimming in the tidal flow, a large shark more than 20 feet long giving me a show for more than an hour. Another Harbour Porpoise and her calf swam close to it before scurrying off. Bob Taylor had been to the Sound and spotted sharks there too. We set off in Happy Jack from Port St Mary and with a helpful tip-off from Malcolm Kelly, we found about 12 sharks about a mile off Glen Maye. We stayed with them for nearly 3 hours, as they slowly moved offshore and towards Contrary Head. This proved to be a wildlife extravaganza, sharks close following, swimming in groups of up to five. Close to the boat and a number of times right alongside. One came right up to my pole camera stopping only an inch or two from it. The spectacular experience continued with sharks breaching clear of the water FOUR times. Thankfully they were a good way off but the sight, noise and the splash from this is a stunning event. We stayed there for over three hours just watching and letting the sharks go by. This was the most amazing day for courtship behaviour. Not only did we have the four breaching sharks, we had TWO groups of sharks displaying what scientists describe as ‘putative’ courtship behaviour for nearly three hours! One of these groups was of 3-4 sharks close nose to tail following (less than ¼ of a shark body length apart) and the other was of 2-3 sharks doing the same. Occasionally the group of 3-4 sharks was swimming parallel but one slightly behind the other. There were 2 aspects of the courtship behaviour that were very interesting. There were several sharks involved intimately with the close following that I would have thought were slightly small to be involved in courtship behaviour. They were 18 foot long. The other aspect that struck me was that the behaviour was so consistent over such a long time. On other occasions when we have watched courtship behaviour the courting sharks have swapped between parallel swimming and nose to tail following every few minutes. VERY interesting. We look forward to reviewing our video footage in the morning. Gannets, harbour porpoises, jelly fish, the fish-finder full of echoes. The sea was alive. I cannot remember a better day with the sharks, a wonderful experience and the sight of those breaching sharks still plays in my mind. We were joined by Claire Pickett, an undergraduate Marine Biology student from Newcastle University. I don't think she knows exactly how unusual her day out with our Manx sharks was! MANY thanks to Mal Kelly for towing us back to Peel when our engine packed up temporarily due to dirty fuel (oh the joys of boating)!

Here is an account of the unusual basking shark behaviour witnessed on Friday 20th July 2007. Both occurrences happened towards the end of a vigil on 4 sharks (6 to 8 M) in the strand line area about 0.5 miles off Fleshwick. The sharks were well spaced, over 100m between individual sharks. However at one point two of the sharks did cross paths and separated without any interaction that was obvious to me. I was sat in the area in the kayak for about 3 hours. The sea had a slight ripple though oily calm within the strand line that was about 15m wide and stretched from Brada head to Niarbyl. The strand line had a good number of associated moon jelly-fish and some the same size that looked like ww2 parashutes. There was a shoal of fish, presumably mackerel that boiled on the surface at times which was eagerly anticipated by several greater black backed gulls.

One shark which I had watched feeding for several minutes stopped and shook itself, not violently, more like a shiver. At the time it was about 20 m away from me so I could not see any detail as to whether it still had its mouth open of closed etc. I can't even tell you the sex. The shiver was most evident in the dorsal fin area that was well out of the water. The closest other shark I could see was probably 100m or so away.

The second odd occurrence was when I started to make for shore after watching a shark zig zaging through the strand line feeding. I allowed the shark to pass me for the last time before I started paddling for the coast. The shark however turned again to follow me and swam up to the tail of my kayak. I speeded up being concerned that I was now in its way but the shark kept a pace with me. The shark dropped slightly lower in the water so that the dorsal fin was no longer on the surface but looking back I could still see the white of the open mouth as it followed me much faster than its previous feeding speed. It took a good 30 seconds of brisk paddling before I could no longer see it behind me. I kept on looking back but did not see it again.

Craig once told me that a shark he was watching some years ago seemed to home in on his paddle strokes. He was similarly unnerved and got out of the way as best he could.

Pauline Oliver first told me about this so I (Jackie Hall)interviewed Martin Birch, skipper of the yawl Espaniola. Martin was sailing off Elby Point when, quite suddenly, 2 sharks appeared 3-4 yards away from the boat on his starboard side. Although there were other people on board only Martin saw this. The two sharks were circling, twisting and intertwined with each other. He says that there was so much splashing that it was impossible to see where one shark ended and the other began. He got the impression that they were so close together that they must have been skin to skin, with no space between them. They were only on the surface for 10-20 seconds and then they sank below the surface. Martin says that unfortunately the detail was not there as it was such a brief surface sighting. He got the impression that they might have been mating but, as he says, the detail was not there so we cannot definitively say this. His main impression was of lots of splashing and that the two sharks were very close together.

On the evening of Wednesday 11th July we took ourselves off to Fleshwick to see if we could spot any sharks. Having been there twice previously this summer and having had sightings on both occasions, we arrived at 7.45pm with high hopes - and were not disappointed. Climbing to the top of the small rise on the right of the car park gave us about 50' elevation above sea level and a perfect platform for shark spotting using a pair of 10x50 binoculars and another pair of 12x50 bins. There were no sharks close in, but on our first scan of the middle distance a shark was spotted feeding close under the rocks at "The Boe", about 50 metres from shore. Shortly after that, a second smaller shark was seen further out, feeding along the same plankton line. Plankton concentrations were clearly visible on the surface of the sea, much of it in lines, as were rafts of weed. Sea conditions were mild, with small wavelets from a south-westerly wind sheltered by Bradda Head and the tide state was one hour before high tide. For the first half hour we observed these two sharks (No.1:20-26', No.2:13-20')feeding along the plankton-line in the water, repeatedly traversing the area. At approximately 8.15pm a third shark (No3: 20-26') appeared offshore (westwards) of the feeding pair, and almost immediately sharks 1 and 3 began a different swimming pattern. There then appeared to be a "joust" between shark No1 and the new arrival, shark No 3. No 1, east of the group, close under the rocks, partially breached. The whole body curved sideways rapidly, rolling in the surface and exposing its rear side and tail, thrashing the water, as it appeared to turn to face shark No 3. Both sharks then swam rapidly towards each other. From an initial distance of approx 120 metres separation, they drove towards each other directly and rapidly, closing to 10 metres or less apart, on a clear collision course ! At that point the left hand (No 3) shark turned sharply towards us, while the right hand shark (No 1) turned away, northwards in a rapid movement, flailing the surface with its tail fin creating a large amount of spray. Both disappeared for a short time, before one (not sure which) of the larger sharks, and the medium shark (No 2) reappeared and were observed swimming northwesterly away from the encounter area. Sadly these two then dived and we saw no further activity. Anne Hills and Duncan Bridges

Whilst kayaking around Fleshwick bay I spotted two shark fins about one mile out. I was surfing the small waves and heading towards the sharks at a speed of about 5 to 6 knots when I heard what I thought was a breaking wave behind me. The sound of the wave lasted longer than usual so I looked around to see what was going on, what I saw was a shark surfing on the same wave as myself, nearly resting its nose on the stern of my kayak. I kept paddling and the shark kept following! When I eventually slowed down he stayed with me for a minute or two allowing me to take some under water video footage. He then came along side the kayak before diving down - that was the last I saw of him. Craig Whalley There will be a video clip of this put on the photo section soon. Unfortunately the actual moment was too critical to be caught on video but the video is of the same shark!

"Anyone in Port Erin last Saturday may well have spotted Dennis. Dennis is a 6.5m basking shark who was feeding in Port Erin Bay from about 11am to 5pm last Saturday (7th July 2007). And what a fantastic site, Juan Watterson (not the MHK!) took one of our kayaks out and was paddling around with the shark for about an hour. At the same time a handful of people ventured out to it with only a surfboard to hang on to. Myself and Ffinlo were out sailing in one of the RS Teras (which turned out to be about one third of the size of the shark itself!). We decided we'd 'go and check the shark out' as it is not often that they venture into the Bay, so off we went headed in it's direction. Then we got scared!! This enormous creature also decided to check us out - we figured that to a shark the underside of our boat could easily look like another shark. And so it swam toward us and came right past the side of our boat - nose, fin and tail - this thing was really big, yet incredibly sensitive to it's surroundings, it could have easily capsized us or knocked the boat with it's powerful tail, but it didn't, it came real close and than dropped underneath us to avoid us completely. This was an amazing encounter! More amazing still was later in that afternoon Jon, Juan and Ruth all got wetsuited up and actually went snorkeling with it. A larger group of us stayed within the safety of our boat - helpfully shouting "it's behind you" to the swimmers!! One ambition realised for Jon, who since we opened 7th Wave has been saying "one day I'm gonna swim with one of them". The shark turned out to be one of the two sharks tagged recently by the Manx Basking Shark Watch, hence we know it is called Dennis. It was fantastic that Juan had been able to get close enough to it in the kayak and had seen the tag. This enabled the shark to be identified - a great result for all concerned."

I was fortunate to be witness, between 18.00 – 20.15 on Saturday 7th July 2007, 3 basking sharks about 1 km NW of Peel breakwater. I sat taking some photos from my kayak then would predict the shark’s trajectory and anticipate that it would or might pass by me. So I jumped into the water from my sit-on-top kayak with mask, fins and snorkel and equipped with my underwater digital camera clicked away. On several occasions the sharks did pass by and I snapped away despite the poor visibility, the large preponderance of jellyfish and a generally variable evening as regards weather (cloudy, showers, sun). Having dreamt of Saturday evening’s encounters I awoke Sunday 8th July early to be greeted by a cloudless sky and little wind. So after a few coffees and wanting to avoid the boat engines later on in the day I set off from Peel harbour at about 07.10 and sat by the orange marker buoy about 1km NW in Peel Bay. I sat for 35 minutes taking in the sun’s rays observing the surrounding sea when a fin broke the surface about 07.55. I watched motionless but it disappeared. Ten minutes later it resurfaced. I then followed keeping my distance as it swam further out to sea. By around 08.20 and between 2 to 3 miles out I was observing 5 sharks, two of which were following each other nose to tail and parallel swimming. I decided today that I would test out my video so anticipating the shark’s path and movements I jumped in whenever I thought it was going to pass by. Not always successful this required me to clamber in and out of the kayak. On successful occasions the shark passed by me enabling me to video it feeding or swimming. On two occasions I videoed two sharks parallel swimming as can be seen from the footage. At times when I was just sat motionless or even in the water the shark(s) would approach me as if they were checking me out. An observation is that the sharks carrying out the courtship behaviour did not do it continuously. Often it would be nose to tail following, then splitting and going for a feed, then resuming swimming parallel to each other, then going for a feed. This behaviour was present on both Saturday evening as well as Sunday morning. I left all 5 sharks still on the surface around 09.35 and got back to the breakwater at around 10.05.

June 2007 I met Skell. He is skipper of De Bounty, a trawler. He has been recordeing his wildlife sightings fror many years and was kind enough to copy some of them down for me. Here they are. 1997: 8th April 2 dolphin 8.30am SW of Chickens 12th April Harbour porpoises Port St Mary Bay 21st April Large single dolphin South Port St Mary May 27th Large seal 9 miles south Port St Mary May 27th Large seal 9 miles south of Port St Mary May 30th 4 or 5 porpoises 6 miles SW Chickens June 17th Dolphin jumping out of water Castletown Bay (evening) July 6th Harbour porpoises 4-6 8 or 9 miles south of Port St Mary July 8th Harbour porpoises as above. 1998 July 28th Large basking shark in Port St Mary Bay August 19th Large basking shark off Port St Mary Pier September 29th Leatherback turtle 18 miles south of Port St Mary 1999 Jan 9th 4 porpoises 4 miles west of Chickens March 25th 4 or 5 harbour porpoises SW of Chickens April 24th 2 basking sharks off Port St Mary May 27th 1 harbour porpoise off Chicken Rock June 29th 1 large basking shark Langness July 25th Red tide bloom (algae) 10 miles off Douglas August 2nd 1 basking shark, 2 harbour porpoises 2000 May 13th Unknown whale May 14th 6 Rissos dolphins May 15th 1 harbour porpoise off Port St Mary pier June 16th 1 basking shark Langness 2001 May 11th Dolphin Whort Bank, Port St Mary May 23rd 1 big basking shark, 1 porpoise, 2 Minke whales July 26th 13 miles south Port St Mary porpoises July 31st Red tide off Port St Mary August 1st Some red tide 2002 March. Porpoises 10 miles SW Port St Mary. June 20th. Dolphin 10 miles south of Port St mary, August 1st, 2nd, 3 rd, 4th and 5th Harbour Porpoises more than 10 12 miles south of Port St Mary. September 4th. 8 to 10 killer whales 11 miles SW of Port St Mary 08.00 -08.30. November 9th Big whale alongside when towing. Fin whale possibly 40-50' 10.30 5 miles west of the Calf. 2003 Feb 17th Killer Whale Whort Bank am March 17th Risso Dolphin jumping at Chickens May 27th 1 Minke Whale and harbour porpoises May 28th, 1 whale (pilot) round boat when emptying catch May 29th 1 pilot whale round boat (all 8 miles south of Port St Mary) June 14th 10 miles south of Douglas 1 pilot whale June 16th Langness Herring hog whale June 17th Port St Mary 12 miles south, 1 pilot whale + 1 seal July 2nd Seal alongside 14 miles south of Port St Mary July 12th Large gamefish jumps twice out of water 14 miles SW Port St Mary. Possibly Marlin or Tuna definitly not a mammal). 600-800lb. + seal /millions of jellyfish + 2 basking sharks 1.5 miles off Port St Mary side of the Calf Dec 6th 4 0r 5 dolphins 2004: February 13th, i dolphin 5 miles off the Chickens. April 2nd 5 or 6 dolphins. April 11th Harbour porpoises. April 26th Harbour porpoises. May 5th Seal 6 miles SW of Calf. June 15th Basking Shark 2 miles off Peel. July 27th 2 basking sharks in Port St Mary Bay. July 28th Harbour porpoises Port St Mary Bay, 1 basking shark 9 miles south of Port St Mary. August 10th Porpoises. August. Dead whale washed up behind Port St Mary fish factory. 2005 March 7th 6-7 miles off Douglas. Unknown sea creature seen on a calm day. Skells drawing of it looks like a 2 humped snake. He says that you could see air ebeneath the 'loops' of the creature. VERY interesting, no wonder there are stories of sea monsters when things like this are spotted. I suggested to Skell that he looked upan 'Oarfish' on Google to see if it looked like that. May 30th Whale alongside 8 milesa south of Port St Mary. June 6th Minke whale 14 miles off Port St Mary. + pod of 4-6 pilot whales 4 miles off Port St Mary at teatime. June 19th 1 porpoise Port St Mary. July 1st 2 harbour porpoises 6 miles off Port St Mary. 2006 May 11th Pod of small harbour porpoises Port St Mary Bay. may 12th 6 harbour porpoises 5 miles west of the Calf. June 4 harbour porpoises and 1 pilot whale 10 miles SE Port St Mary. June 15th 1 pilot whale, 2 harbour porpoises and 1 seal 10 miles SE of Port St Mary. June 17th Risso Dolphin 5 miles off Port St Mary. June 26th Big basking shark off St Mary. August 23rd and 24th Seal 9 miles off Port St Mary.

One May morning, 2003, we were spin fishing for Pollock (Callig) from the rocks at Perwick Bay. Sport was slow and the eyes tended to wander instead of concentrating on the fishing. Something was different. A movement caught at the edge of the arc of vision. It was one of those occasions when the brain refuses to accept the impulse from the eye. It showed again. Standing like a windsurfer’s sail in the whitecaps of a stiff sou’easter, a grey/brown triangle gleamed in the sunshine and slid away. Fifty meters away a large white expanse showed in front of the fin as the apparition turned and came towards us. Is it? Surely not this close. It is, it is! The fin was a dorsal and the white area was a gaping mouth. After 71 years I had the privilege of a sighting of myfirst ever basking shark.

As we have seen in his earlier basking shark tales, John Galpin is an astute observer. Here he describes something that I have not found in the scientific literature.

“I have seen jousting behaviour on several occasions. Typically it has taken two forms, one a very tranquil nose to nose alignment, the sharks facing one another just holding station 2 or 3 metres apart, and this can continue for tens of minutes. The second form has been the intimate passing rub, which gives the appearance of knights jousting on a tilting yard. In this second form, both fish tend to swim towards one another and slide past each other in intimate contact, in a controlled and gentle manner while still both remain on the surface”.

“Both of these actions can be seen at the times when some or many others may be engaged in paired or multiple echelon swimming, and occasionally, a pair that had been swimming in formation, might re-arrange themselves and joust”.

The jousting event that John describes next is very different and very dramatic. John observes the sharks from a distance through powerful binoculars so he is not disturbing the animals in any way. He is therefore in a position to see undisturbed basking shark behaviour in a way that observers in boats never are. This is an abbreviated version of the events.

“Two basking sharks of about 5 metres arrive at 17.50 and 18.08. They move around, sometime at great speed, other times apparently slowly feeding. At 19.51 a large shark of estimated 8metres plus arrives. All three sharks are clearly visible. The large shark swims to within 600 metres of the shore and stops. It is still and stationary in the water, facing North along the coast. It remains stationary, its large dorsal fin piercing a moderate sea. Suddenly from the North, one of the other sharks is moving south, at high speed, heading for the stationary shark. When the sharks are about 60m apart, it is clear that the shark swimming south bound is on a collision course with the large stationary shark. Both sharks are clearly visible in the binoculars and with the cross-hairs on the stationary shark, there is a clear and straight path, as shown using the eyepiece graticules, between both sharks. The charging shark is swimming very quickly, more than 6 knots, its path unwavering and aligned as it has been for at least 100 metres. As the charging shark approaches the still stationary shark, they both begin to submerge. At 2-3 shark lengths from the stationary shark, the one charging has completely submerged and the stationary shark is nearly completely below the water with the smallest amount of dorsal fin showing. At the anticipated moment of contact the sea erupts in a boiling, seething upwelling of water forced to the surface. The surface is stretched and pillowed, fringed by an oblate ring of bubbles and foam. From out of the centre of this upheaval suddenly rises the whole tail of probably the larger shark. This was the whole tail, or at least 2.5metres worth, the caudal fin raised high in the air and slammed onto the sea, in huge fury and force, water cascading. Then a second slam to the fish’s right, then a third, smacking the water to the left again, with tremendous force. Then nothing, all sharks disappear, no further sightings that night. All this happened in full view through the binoculars and at the location of the stationary shark, bearing 282 (T) 600 metres from shore in around 10+ metres of water”.

This is an amazing first hand account of a type of basking shark behaviour that does not appear to have been documented before. It is easy for such accounts to pass unrecorded.

John Galpin has made some very interesting observations from the coast off Glen Maye about atypical basking shark behaviour in 2004.

“Most years there are numerous basking sharks basking close to shore, say 600m or less. Often they will slowly drift closer to shore as afternoon moves to evening. Usually sharks are clearly visible without binoculars. Not this year. Only a few were basking close to the shore and only for short periods. Those that were seen were spotted through high-powered binoculars in rough or very rough seas, not the mirror flat calm seas of previous years. There were ample days when the sea was perfect to allow easy sightings had the sharks been on the surface. In previous years it had been possible to watch the same sharks all day, with the same individuals remaining stationary at or near the cross hairs of the binoculars for 6 plus hours. The sharks were effectively motionless with respect to the shore/seabed and could be seen feeding on the same spot all day, turning on the weak tidal flow as it reversed from flood to ebb and back again. This year this has not happened at all.”

“Apart from a few off shore and short duration occurrences there was no echelon swimming activity. Normally, echelon swimming has been evident throughout a large parts of the season, with three or more sharks swimming in tight synchronized order for many hours at a time over 3 square miles plus of sea. Sometimes this would last for a few hours after sunrise and often throughout the entire afternoon and evening, often until very late. None of this happened this year (2004)”.

“On numerous occasions this year it was possible to see sharks turn and face approaching vessels, even when the distance of shark to vessel was well in excess of a mile. Even when the sharks may have been feeding happily for some considerable time, the distant approach of a vessel was enough to make them submerge. The sharks would seem to turn and face the oncoming vessel and even at a range of one mile would slip below the surface and only reappear after the vessel had long departed. This apparent timidity was seen on numerous occasions. This was seen to occur with vessels under sail and those under power. Sharks that had been feeding quite happily at the surface for hours were seen to dive in concert as a yacht suddenly altered course and tacked hard towards them, even though that boat was still 3000 metres away from the sharks. This timidity in concert was often observed when a group of sharks, sometimes widely distributed, would submerge simultaneously as though someone had rung a bell to announce the end of that session! This behaviour always seemed to occur with the arrival of a vessel, be it a lobster potter, yacht or powered boat.”

“At 10.15 am on 17th June 2004 some very unusual behaviour was observed. Sharks had already been seen in rough or very rough water, but on this morning one shark repeatedly surfed on breaking waves, cruising down the steep side sometimes with its mouth wide open and within a short distance of the shore. I have not witnessed this behaviour before.”

Those of you who have read the section on basking shark reproduction will have an understanding of how few scientific reports have been made on basking shark courtship behaviour. There only appears to be one account of a possible mating.This was viewed from a helicopter off Novia Scotia. Dr Sims, the prominent basking shark researcher from Plymouth University goes as far as to say“….mating itself probably takes place as this was not seen at the surface”. This makes John Galpin's observations of basking shark courtship and a possible inshore mating all the more precious and remarkable. His first hand account might help you to recognise basking shark courtship if you see it.

“Most years in the waters around Niarbyl and Glen Maye, it has been possible to witness the social behaviour of basking sharks, one with another. This has involved long periods of parallel and echelon swimming involving 2 or more sharks. Sharks have been observed to swim together in a synchronized and parallel manner with the lead (presumably female) shark closely followed by one or more (presumably) males in either a line astern formation or displaced to the side and rear as an echelon”.

“The swimming of one or more sharks in synchrony with a lead shark is also characterized by the phase relationship of the movements of the following sharks with respect to the leader. The one or more following sharks swimming action is seen to be in phase with the leader, with little or no phase delay.So the sweeping of the tail to the left by the lead shark is perfectly and simultaneously copied without any apparent loss of fidelity by the following shark(s)”.

“This behaviour has been seen to continue for many hours and on several occasions, for more than 5 hours. Some years these synchronized parallel and echelon swimming events are repeated on several consecutive days. Sometimes there have been three or four separate synchronized groups, independently behaving socially and these too may continue for several hours”.

“On the 30th of July 1999 at 18.30 hours BST this social behaviour culminated in an apparent mating between two sharks. The sharks were first sighted at 14.00 hours, just 0.25 nautical miles from shore. The sea was flat, mirror calm under clear blue skies without any cloud cover. Sea and wind force 0”.

“There were five sharks in total, of which three were seen to be swimming together as a perfectly synchronized trio, being lead by a large 8+metre shark. The two following sharks were displaced closely to the side and behind the leader in a 30 degree (approx) alignment. These three sharks continued their social swimming until 18.25 when the large lead shark and the one that had remained immediately behind (a 6-8metre shark) split away from the third. These two sharks, still in the same perfect formation, began to swim ever closer to shore”.

“In shallow water 125 metres from shore (or thereabouts) the two sharks became extremely agitated and active with one another. The sharks writhed together, the smaller 6-8 metres shark entwined and twisted around the axis of the body of the larger shark. This writhing and possible mating continued until after 19.00 hours. After they had finished, the sea was reported to be “full of black oily liquid” which is thought to be the residue from mutual skin abrasion during the possible mating event. The other three sharks not involved with the writhing remained within 250 metres and continued to feed. This entire event was witnessed from land by the author (John Galpin); several others aboard a local boat, contacted by the author, witnessed these events from 18.20 hours”.

John Galpin is an enthusiastic local basking shark watcher. He has contributed three Isle of Man basking shark stories to start off this site. Hopefully he will provide many more over the years.
“Virtually every year since moving to the west coast of Mann in 1995 we have observed large numbers of basking sharks, often to within 50 metres of the shore. The sharks have been seen to feed, socialize, and on one occasion, possibly mate. Shoal sizes have been to 37, seen in Glen Maye bay but this is rare. However, these waters have consistently produced large average shoal sizes per sighting, as well as having disproportionately high numbers of large and very large sharks (to 12 metres). These parts of the Irish sea, from Peel to Port Erin, are traditionally important fishing grounds, which have provided the Island with much of its staple protein source through history. Herring from May to October, mackerel from July together with sandeels, pout and cod, pollack, saithe and haddock have fed the islanders, the seabirds and the annual cetacean visitors. The fishing industry today concentrates on shellfish, with fixed gear for crabs, lobsters and whelks; and trawlers for scallops, queen scallop and Dublin Bay prawns”.
"Virtually every year since moving to the West coast of Mann in 1995 we have observed large numbers of basking sharks, often to within 50 metres of the shore".
The plankton rich waters that attract the herring are frequented by basking sharks from May to Mid-August. Quietly isolated, the West coast of Mann has long been known for its regular sightings and considerable numbers of basking sharks. Between Peel and Port Erin there are fewer than 12 occupied houses that have good clear views of the in-shore coastal waters (ie from shoreline to 3 miles). Those that exist are mainly around Niarbyl and Dalby. Contrary Head and the coastal footpath to Glen Maye offer spectacular scenery as well as a good vantage point to see basking sharks. Further along the coast, the path from Niarbyl to the Sloc provides wonderful views of this exceptional seascape.

The phone rang. "I am on the lower footpath to Bradda Head and there are basking sharks feeding right up to the rocks below me. Can you come down to see them?" It was a dear friend calling while on her afternoon walk. She was trying to get fit again after a number of very serious operations. "Will be down to Port Erin right away" I replied.

A brisk walk along the winding cliff path I saw a young man sitting on a rock by the water's edge. He was raptly watching a basker swim by less than three metres away from him.
My friend was around the next corner. Armed with binoculars and polarized sunglasses to protect us from the glare off the sunlit water we spent nearly two hours watching four young (4-5m) sharks. They were feeding on plankton held close inshore by the onshore breeze. They eventually disappeared around Bradda Head on the ebb tide.
Turning homewards, sun on our backs and surrounded by wildflowers my friend said "Life has taken a turn for the better".
Below us, the young man was still sitting in the late afternoon sun, gazing out to sea.

The sea was far too rough for diving and impossible for photographing or even seeing a basking shark. We decided to take visitor Ian for a trip down the coast from Port Erin instead.
Spray flying as the little 5.1m RIB bounced around on the waves we were glad to be in our drysuits. Approaching the Calf Sound I glanced seaward. Inside a big, curling translucent wave, like a surfer ‘riding the tube’ was a large basker, mouth agape feeding.
How I wish I was able to catch that image on camera but that unforgettable image will always be etched in my memory!

Hello,

As you may have heard we, a group of English, Belgian and Dutch divers were very lucky to be able to sim with several basking sharks last saturday. I even have been able to make some pictures, which is an achievement since I was also very bussy wetting my dive suit.
The first shark I saw was just after the first dive, I let myself into the water from the Castaway boat and waited for things to happen. It's a very weird experience to know that there are some giants very close to you. I kept on seeing the fin above the water but it didn't come very close to me and I was not about to give up a chance of a lifetime taking it's picture by finning behind it. Then the fin came exactly towards me. I saw it coming closer and kept telling myself, 'this is not JAWS, this is a gentle creature'. When the fin was about 6m from me I saw a huge open mouth coming directly at me. Somehow I was able to keep on taking pictures but I was afraid as well. I got the impression that this beautiful giant didn't know I was in it's way. Just before me it dived down one meter and missed me by less than a meter. It was swimming directly under me. I could not make any more pictures of this animal since I thought it would be best to keep me feet in front of me to be able to take a hit from the tail fin. Nothing happened and the giant just swam on.
At this point my breathing was as fast as my heart was pounding and I was shouting beautifull english words to the boat (I really didn't mean to offendanyone, it was just excitement). I climbed back on the boat and thought that things were over. Then wen we came close to the sound we saw 3 basking sharks roaming the surface. I qiuckly went in again and was again able to make some pictures. One of my friends and 2 of the english divers were also lucky.
It was very amazing how close we came to the sharks (beter to sat how close they came to us). I do want to take more pictures and am still shaken by what happened. An unforgetable experience which was also made possible by Gary, the skipper of the Castaway.
Hope you can use my pictures (if you do please mention my name or one of my websites). If you ever need a fool who is willing to swim with these giants and make some pictures please let me know.
Best regards,
Wouter Groenewegen.
www.rebreather.nl