Basking Shark Carcase Removed From Beach

October 27, 2009

Release from: The Press and Journal (UK)

The carcase of a basking shark which beached on a popular stretch of the Moray coast was removed for a post-mortem examination yesterday.

Scottish Agricultural College’s strandings co-ordinator Bob Reid arrived at Lossiemouth East Beach in the morning with colleague Andrew Brownlow to take the shark to the college base in Inverness.

They had to use a rope to tow the 660lb creature along the beach to a Forestry Commission access road, before transferring it by a winch on to a trailer.

The 10ft toothless shark, which is harmless to humans, had to be put down by a vet after it beached at Lossiemouth on Sunday afternoon.

A group of about 20 members of the public had made several attempts to roll the shark out to sea, although rough weather caused it to be washed back in each time.

Mr Reid said there were no indications that the young male shark had been poisoned, but said a number of tests, including bacteriology, were still to be carried out. He said remnants of food in the shark’s stomach showed the cause of death was not starvation.

He said there was usually only one such examination carried out on basking sharks each year as they decomposed so quickly.

Between 60 and 80 dolphins and porpoises which strand on Scottish coastlines are examined each year.

The information from the basking shark post-mortem examination is to be added to a national database and will form part of an ongoing UK Government Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and Scottish Government research project.