Basking Shark Aggregations

Nigel Motyer · Issue 147, Nov/Dec 2025 · pp. 59–64

Products mentioned: Nikon D850, Nauticam housing, Nikon D300, Tokina 10-17mm lens, Aquatica Housing, DJI Mavic Pro 2

You’d be forgiven for thinking that if Nemo was 12 meters long, they’d have found him a lot quicker and it would have been a much shorter film, but maybe not. Basking sharks are huge, but despite their size they are, or perhaps were, very hard to find. I think I was diving nearly twenty five years before I managed to get into the water beside one. Despite their size, man they were hard to find ! Those first experiences were usually in the early season, April or May, just as the plankton blooms were starting and the basking sharks reappeared around the south west coast of Ireland. They would then work their way up the west coast, gather briefly off the northern shores of Malin Head then run up to the Hebrides where they were frequently seen between the islands of Coll and Tiree, just west of Mull. I say reappeared but in truth we didn’t really know where they’d been, perhaps they’d never …