BASKING sharks are back in the Isle of Man’s waters and have been spotted off the southern and western coasts - despite the rough weather.
Sharks were spotted surfing in the waves on three consecutive days at the end of last week, all off the Niarbyl coast - one of the shark’s favourite Isle of Man destinations.
Sharks have since been seen every day 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.
Mid May is usually the first time each year to see the gentle giants of the sea which gather in Manx waters in large numbers every year to feed and breed.
It makes the Isle of Man one of the most reliable places in the world to see the magnificent creatures in large numbers.
This year Manx Basking Shark Watch - which has regular updates on sightings - intends to tag three sharks during the 2011 summer season.
One has been supplied by Tower Insurance, one from last year’s Manx government funding from DEFA and one is the recycled tag already used twice.
Tower insurance has donated £1,500 towards the data processing of the tags and DEFA has funded some of the boat time.
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.
“As she was a very big 8m long shark we are thinking that maybe it’s just the very big ones that do this. Hence trying to tag another big one or two.”
Meanwhile, the French scientists from APECS are nearing completion of the analysis of tags deployed in previous years.
isleofman.com will report on the findings when the report is received.
