Be Afraid..

[Silkie]

Came surfing into Puilladobhrain yesterday afternoon and was surprised to see two basking sharks hoovering up seafood snacks very close to the Dun Horses. I thought they preferred open water but what do I know?

Noticed an unusual amount of fish activity in the anchorage including gannets diving (again I'm only used to seeing that in open water) and the herons having a field day and speculated that a shoal of fish had wandered in and been unable to find their way out.

Was even more astonished when I stuck my head out at 0800 this morning to see a basking shark apparently about to eat the dinghy. It spent a further couple of hours very actively feeding around the boats. I thought they were filter feeders of plankton?

Unfortunately the pictures are crap as you might expect. Perhaps my crew has done better.

[Silkie]

Prey items consist of small copepods, barnacles, decapod larvae, fish eggs and a deep-water oceanic shrimp (my emphasis)

Areas of the surface of the water were almost constantly boiling with eruptions of a few dozen small fish. I had assumed that they were being chased by larger fish but could they have been spawning at this time of year?

[claymore]

We met one right in the entrance to Acarseid Mor on Rhona a couple of years ago - the entrance is tight - as is that of Pullers so I complained to it - just like Dear Heart, it didn't take a blind bit of notice and carried on