BLUEMOMENT

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.

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?

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