Poor weather is keeping our basking sharks well at bay

INCLEMENT weather in recent months has been blamed for the lack of basking sharks in West Cork waters, according to one local boat operator.

David Edwards, skipper of West Cork Charters, who runs his charter boat Silver Dawn out of Courtmacsherry, said that normally at this time of year they would be ‘flat out’ with basking shark research being carried out by biologists from several countries.

‘Unfortunately, the almost-constant easterly winds have kept temperatures down in the south coast and the increased cloud cover has prevented the sunshine from penetrating the surface that would usually kick off the plankton blooms in our area,’ he told The Southern Star.

‘The basking sharks feed on the plankton so they have largely avoided the south coast. Fortunately for the scientists, the west coast did have more sunshine so they were able to carry out some of their planned research there.’

David said that it was only earlier in the week that he got confirmed sightings of a small number locally. 

‘It’s crazy to think that at this time last year, we recorded 200 basking sharks in one day.’

Nic Locum of Whale Watch West Cork said a few basking sharks have been seen, but nothing like the number that should be seen for this time of the year.

‘If you don’t get decent weather, then you won’t get basking sharks. You need very good calm seas to see them at a distance, as well as sunshine to attract the phytoplankton to the surface of the water,’ he said.

Nic said that they have seen some dolphin and minke whale activity but they haven’t been able to get far off shore.