Basking Sharks (1 Viewer)

Hi

Annual pilgrimage down to the far SW yesterday looking for Basking Sharks. After much searching along the south coast (Penzance to Lands End) we finally caught up with 2 off Sennen Cove after an hour of searching there. Two things were odd about the two we saw and I was wondering whether anyone else has seen either:

1) Prolonged interaction between 2 Sharks: the two followed each other at a distance of 1 - 2 metres for at least half an hour, turning and occasionally appearing to be side by side. The same Shark was always following.

2) How do we know that the same was always following - one had a very odd dorsal fin - much more triangular possibly due to damage and browny instead of dark steel grey with a pale tip. (c. top 15% very pale brown/white).

Cheers

O

This is well documented as courtship behaviour, a great spot, did you see them mate?

Mark

Not that I know of as the sea was a little choppy but at times there was some extra thrashing around that may have been mating? I'm guessing that the male would have been the one following?

Interestingly, the one with the odd fin looked very similar to one seen off Plymouth 10 days ago http://www.baskingsharks.org/content.asp?did=26756

Cheers

O

Having now read the Sims paper on courtship in Basking Sharks that describes exactly what we saw, I think that it was most likely courtship. Copulation seems to occur underwater however so maybe we did not see that.

O