Basking Sharks

2010 has been a fantastic season for wildlife spotting around SCOTLANDS western Isles. We videoed these shots just off the Treshnish Isles, not far from Staffa.
That morning we visited Iona before heading to the Treshnish Isles.
This gentle giant is the largest fish to be found in the coastal waters of the British Isles. Measuring anything up to 12 metres long, and weighing up to 7 tonnes, it feeds on animal plankton, filtering 1,000 to 2,000 cubic metres of seawater per hour to extract its tiny prey. During the summer months, it favours Cornish, Devon, Manx, Irish and Scottish waters as its regular feeding grounds. The basking shark is an internationally recognised endangered species with legal protection. Its main attraction now lies in its highly valued enormous fins, which are a delicacy in the Far East, and hunting remains the single biggest threat to its future.

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Pets & Animals

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