Jaws Drop As Shark Turns Up On Beach

October 6, 2007

Release from: Hazel Mollison
Edinburgh News (UK)

It looked more like a scene from Jaws than an average day on peaceful Fisherrow Beach in East Lothian.

People enjoying a quiet stroll could not believe their eyes when they saw a three-metre shark lurking in the shallows.

The basking shark, which had strayed from its normal habitat on the west coast of Scotland, was washed up injured on the beach yesterday.

Despite a five-hour struggle by animal welfare workers to return it to the sea, the giant fish later died.

Marine experts think the shark may have followed shoals of plankton around the northern tip of Scotland and into unfamiliar east coast waters.

Scottish SPCA inspectors Stuart Murray and Robert Baldie tried to save the shark after it was reported by a member of the public.

They found it washed up on the beach when they arrived at 10.30am, and a crowd of around 100 people gathered to watch the rescue attempt.

Mr Murray said: "It must have been lost. It was just a young fellow - it was about two years old and ten feet long.

"It looked like it had been caught up in nets. It had a lot of injuries.We put it back to sea but it kept coming back again. At one point we had it out a quarter of a mile, but it was swimming back in again. Its radar was down and it wasn't able to navigate."

After several attempts to save it, the shark finally gave up the struggle at around 3pm. Mr Murray said scientists would be carrying out a post-mortem examination at the Scottish Agricultural College.

He said: "There's a lot of pollution in the sea, and that may have affected it. It seemed to have defects on its skin that I've not come across before. People get spooked when they see basking sharks, but they are completely harmless. They just eat plankton."

Despite their harmless nature, basking sharks can grow up to ten metres long and can still be a startling sight.

Mike Clark, 39, an underwater photographer from Musselburgh, was particularly surprised to see the shark - as he believes he spotted the same animal on a diving trip to Eyemouth.

He said: "My wife phoned me at 2.30pm, and said it was on the beach north of Fisherrow Harbour. It was very close to death at that stage. It was in quite a bad state with a few scratches on it.

"I had been on a boat out at Eyemouth and had seen a juvenile basking shark there. I'd never seen one on the east coast before. The rarity of sightings, and the fact it was also a juvenile would suggest it's the same one."

Anne Saunders, Scottish project officer for the Marine Conservation Society, said they were keen to hear of any more sightings.

She said: "Although basking sharks can be found anywhere in UK waters, they are more regularly found on the west coast as this is where their main supply of food is found, making this individual on the east coast more unusual. The species is listed as vulnerable by the World Conservation Union, and they are protected by law. If you see a basking shark, do not disturb it by approaching it."

East coast sightings are on the increase

Researchers were stunned when four more basking sharks were spotted in the Moray Firth.

Workers from the Cetacean Research and Rescue Unit at Banff saw the group in Spey Bay yesterday.

PhD student Nina Baumgartner, 29, who saw the sharks, said: "It is a recent phenomenon to see so many basking sharks in this area.

"It seems as though they are following the plankton. It is probably down to global warming but currents could be moving the plankton north."

The Marine Conservation Society has also reported six groups of basking sharks in the Forth since June. They have been sighted near North Berwick and Portobello beach.

Sightings of basking sharks are increasing in Scotland, but falling in the rest of the UK, possibly due to rising sea temperatures.