• Economics
• Education
• Environment
• Climate
• Conservation
• Basking Sharks
• Reporting a Sighting
• How, Where and When to Watch
• Code of Conduct
• Recent Sightings
• Fin Photos
• Biology & Behaviour
• Exploitation
• Your Basking Shark Stories
• Basking Sharks for Kids
• References
• Contacts & Websites
• Acknowledgements
• Manx Bird Life
• Manx Wildlife Trust
• Nature Reserves
• The Wildflowers of Mann Project
• Land Use
• Law
• Linguistics
• Organisations
• Government & Politics
• Society

Fin Photos

To post new fin photos please link to our NEW WEBSITE on www.manxbaskingsharkwatch.com.

This section aims to establish a collection of dorsal fin photos of basking sharks seen in Manx waters If you link fin photos to a sightings report it is that much more valuable.

Why do we want fin photos?

The dorsal fin is the most frequently seen part of a basking shark. It can be up to 2m high and can collect numerous cuts, scratches and nicks in it during a sharks lifetime. This is very useful to basking shark watchers as this enables us to identify individual animals. This means that we can find out all kinds of things about them. Obviously we cannot put tags on every basking shark, it would be expensive and time-consuming. If, however, we can identify them by their fin characteristics we can, potentially -

1. Track the movements of individual animals throughout the season. This is invaluable as we would very much like to know how far sharks go and when they are where!
2. Recognise animals from one year to the next.
3. Assess their health and growth over the years.
4. Assess how big the population of sharks is. If we get enough easily recognised sharks and we spot them many times during a season statistics can help us work out how big the overall population is in the same way that the 'tag and re-capture scheme' works with salmon.

The Fin Gallery.

'No-name'

This shark was photographed by mike Flavell in Port Erin Bay 17/06/05. There are no obvious marks on the fin but the shark has a white rub-mark on its nose. Many mature sharks appear to have this. It is probably a result of rubbing against another shark, maybe during courtship behaviour. We can't really give him a name until it gets some fin markings!

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'M' is a large 8m shark that was seen several times in July 2005 in the Niarbyl/ Dalby area. It has a very bad new injury to its dorsal fin. As you can see from these 3 photos this sharks fin looks very different from different angles.

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'Notch 20 footer' was spotted on 21/05/06 off Port St Mary. These images were taken off Blackhead later that day.