Western and Queen’s University Belfast discovered the second recorded evidence of transatlantic movement of a basking shark, the second largest shark on the planet. Images of a female basking shark were captured by an underwater photographer off the coast of Cape Cod nearly three years after it was fitted with a satellite transmitter at Malin […]
Automated drones follow basking sharks in the UK
In a first for the research and study of basking sharks off the coast of western Scotland, SharkCam followed basking sharks to discover more about the world’s second largest species of shark. The REMUS SharkCam technology from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution was used to observe the behavior of basking sharks in the Inner Hebrides […]
SharkoFiles: Basking Sharks
Based on size, the basking shark is the second largest fish in the world. They can grow as long as 40 feet. This shark earned its name from its habit of sunning itself on the surface, back awash with its dorsal fin fully exposed. In some areas, such as Scotland and Ireland, they are known […]
Basking sharks have aerial breaching capabilities
Basking sharks may not be the lazy, lumbering ocean dwellers that they appear to be. A new study by researchers at Trinity College in Dublin and published in this month’s journal of Biology Letters, found that basking sharks have the same aerial capability as great white sharks when it comes to breaching out of the water. Basking […]
Study seeks explanation for basking shark aggregations
Researchers are hoping to understand why large groups of basking sharks, sometimes over 1,000 at a time are aggregating in waters from Nova Scotia to Long Island regularly. In a recent study reported in the Journal of Fish Biology, researchers analyzed aggregations of basking sharks recorded off the northeastern United States coast to learn more about […]
Ireland’s basking sharks at risk of extinction
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature added 11 species of sharks and other elasmobranchs found off the coast of Ireland, including the massive basking shark, to its “Red List” of species that face an imminent threat of extinction. Basking sharks, which were once hunted to catastrophic levels because of their oily livers, are the […]