MORE sightings of basking sharks have been reported at the start of Bank Holiday weekend with three being seen in the south of the Isle of Man last night (Friday).

Two large sharks were seen by isleofman.com from the Calf Sound and a smaller one in Port Erin Bay underneath Bradda Head.

Bill Henderson MHK was one of the lucky people at The Sound last night with his family to see the sharks. He also experienced a very rare sight - a large shark swimming just a few feet off the rocks between Kitterland and The Sound.

“It was an amazing sight,” he said. “It just appeared out of nowhere and swam slowly past us right in the middle of the water between Kitterland and The Sound. It rolled over to one side at one point and it was huge. It was a fantastic thing to see. We were very lucky.”

They are the latest sightings following a week of sharks being seen in various areas on the southern and western coastline. 

Sharks have since been seen every day since last week with sightings off Bradda Head, Port Erin Bay, Fenella Beach, Peel, Calf Sound, Kirk Michael, Derbyhaven and Elby Point.

The first shark of the year was spotted way back in March when Tom Felce saw one 1km off Niarbyl on St Patrick’s Day (17th). No more were recorded until last week.

Anyone who sees a basking shark is asked to report their sighting to the Manx Basking Shark Watch - which has regular updates on its website. The organisation intends to tag three sharks during the 2011 summer season.

A spokesman for Manx Basking Shark Watch said, “We intend to deploy them on either very large sharks or very small ones. No-one has ever tagged a basking shark of less than 3m.

“We need to find out what the all-year round habitat selection looks like in small sharks as compared to the larger ones. We would very much like to have another shark go a very long distance as ‘Tracy’ the Tower Insurance shark did during 2007, when she crossed the Atlantic in 82 days.