Warmer weather and brilliant sunshine has led to an "exceptional" year for spotting basking sharks off the north east coast of Scotland. The gentle giants are more often seen in feeding areas off the country's west coast. But marine experts said the sharks have been noticeably active in waters to the east of the country this year.
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00:00 [Heartbeat]
00:04 Anybody who's watched any of my videos will know I have a great love of Scotland's wildlife.
00:10 Especially those big charismatic creatures that live beneath the waves.
00:17 And while I've had great experiences with things like orca and minke whale,
00:22 there was one honorary citation that I've never really had much of a look at
00:29 until the few and very special days in early autumn of 2023.
00:37 Keep watching, this is a good one. Oh, and you might want to like and subscribe.
00:44 Well, good morning. So, this is Nairn Beach up on the Moray Coast
00:54 on a stunning morning. Absolutely beautiful.
00:59 The reason I'm here is looking for sharks.
01:06 Now, for some reason, Nairn Bay seems to have become shark central recently
01:13 with 20 to 30 basking sharks being seen here.
01:18 So, I've decided to come and have a look myself.
01:22 Our basking sharks are massive, up to 12 metres long.
01:29 So, if you've just seen the footage of us arriving, that sea kayak's 4 metres long.
01:33 So, three of those end to end.
01:36 They can weigh up to about 5 tonnes, which is bigger than an Indian elephant,
01:41 not quite as big as an African elephant.
01:44 And I'm going to have a look through the telescope, see if I can see anything.
01:49 And I'll report back.
01:52 [Music]
01:54 So, 30 in a bay on the east coast of Scotland is quite strange.
02:12 I met a guy a couple of times, Colin Speedy, who's probably the expert on basking sharks in Britain,
02:18 or one of the top ones. And he started studying them in the sort of, I think, the late 80s and 90s.
02:26 And when he was studying them, at that point, he was down on the coast of Cornwall,
02:31 because that was the sort of main place to see basking sharks then.
02:36 And eventually, he moved his research up to the Hebrides, to the west coast of Scotland,
02:42 because he wasn't seeing them in Cornwall so much, but he was seeing them there.
02:47 And I'm wondering now whether or not warming of the oceans has meant that they're going to start
02:53 being seen a lot more on this coast instead of the Hebrides.
02:57 I mean, certainly we've had some strange sightings.
03:00 Last week, I had a group of between 100 and 250 common dolphin off the Aberdeenshire coast.
03:08 That's unusual. They're a warm water species.
03:13 So, something you'd associate again with the west coast of Scotland, which is a lot warmer, the seas are.
03:20 But, yeah, to have that number here, and to have this number of basking sharks,
03:26 although it would be nice to actually see one.
03:29 I can see one.
03:39 Ollie, you know on the other coast, can you see there's like a yellow buoy or something?
03:49 So, we've got a big old basking shark out there now.
03:53 But it's too far away to show you on the camera, so we're going to send in the aerial division.
04:00 So, drones away.
04:07 Eventually.
04:09 Unfortunately, it turned out that there were relatively few sharks on the surface, and a lot of sea.
04:28 So, sadly, we didn't manage to find any sharks in the boat.
04:32 However, we decided to go with plan B.
04:37 So, we went back, picked up the rest of the family, and headed out on a boat to try and see if we could get a good look at them.
04:43 And with Harry taking on the duty of skipper, we were obviously in for a really good chance.
04:49 Sadly, it actually became quite a lot rougher, and I was quite glad that I wasn't actually out there on a kayak at the time.
04:59 But we did find some sharks, although a moving vessel in fairly choppy waters wasn't the best for filming.
05:06 This view reminded me of one of my early views of basking sharks, when I was up near Fair Isle doing a whaling dolphin survey.
05:16 I couldn't work out what was going on.
05:18 It was a flat calm sea, and there was a large seabird swimming straight ahead.
05:23 And behind it was a small seabird going nuts, going side to side.
05:28 I couldn't work out what it was at all, until I suddenly realised that the large seabird at the front was the big dorsal fin,
05:34 and the small seabird at the back was that tail swishing from side to side.
05:40 We saw probably 10 basking sharks on this trip, including one that could almost be described as cute.
05:49 It must have been only 2-3 metres long, a little baby one.
05:55 We had a great time, and we decided to head back in and leave the area,
06:03 because we thought our times with basking sharks was now done.
06:08 Morning.
06:21 I'm back at Nairn.
06:24 I was here last Saturday, and we saw some in the distance, but we couldn't find them that well.
06:32 So we went out on a boat trip, but by then the conditions had got a lot rougher.
06:38 So we did see some, and there's quite a lot of footage here of a couple of them that came really close to the boat.
06:44 In fact, I reckon I must have seen maybe 12 sharks that day, including one late on in the day up at Hopeman.
06:54 But I thought that was me done for basking sharks, and then I was on Facebook yesterday,
07:00 and somebody had been here and counted 54 in one go, doing a scan across.
07:08 And I saw the weather conditions and thought, it's got to be worth a try.
07:12 So I've done a bit of filming with a camera, but I'm now going to see if I can get something a bit closer to her.
07:40 Right, OK, so ridiculously bright conditions for filming me talking to you, but oh, what a stunning day.
07:50 I've got my little Mavic 2 out there.
07:59 And there's a lot of sharks, but there's a lot of sea.
08:05 So I'm just trying to find them.
08:10 Good thing is that the reception's good.
08:15 I've been trying to line up and actually put them on the right course, put the drone on the right course, using the telescope.
08:23 Sorry, that telescope, this camera, to try and actually get me into the right area.
08:28 I should be getting into the area quite soon.
08:32 I have to say, watching me fly a drone is probably not the most interesting thing you can be doing.
08:37 So I'm going to switch things around and show you any footage, if I manage to get any.
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10:55 Ah, it's beautiful.
10:58 Could have put a bit more air in the boat.
11:01 Flat calm.
11:03 Haven't seen the shark yet.
11:05 Seen the seal, seen some gillimots.
11:08 Got a little bit wet.
11:10 But fingers crossed.
11:12 I'm going to press on out a bit further.
11:14 So we'll see how it goes.
11:16 Shame that there's no way for me to really have this stood up nicely as I'm paddling.
11:21 But, oh well, you can't have everything.
11:24 [AUDIO OUT]
11:27 Got my first sharks.
11:34 I can see three in the distance, long way off.
11:38 Beautiful conditions. I mean, this couldn't be a flatter calm I see.
11:43 So I'm going to head out into the general area and then bob, bob around for a bit.
11:49 See what happens.
11:51 As I go chasing them, I'll go into the general sort of distance away that they are.
11:56 And I'll have a bob and tell you what I see.
11:59 I've got the old 7D Mark II and my 100-400 lens with me.
12:05 Not quite expendable, but might be worth a try if things get interesting.
12:12 Right, I'm going to carry on.
12:14 [AUDIO OUT]
12:20 So I'm about a kilometre and a bit out from Nairn now.
12:26 And in front of me is...
12:29 ...12 basking sharks at least.
12:35 And you can probably hear that call going on.
12:43 There's a fair few razorbills around.
12:47 So the basking sharks are ahead of me.
12:50 They're kind of on the way-ish back home.
12:54 So I'm just going to very slowly, very slowly sort of float towards them.
13:02 I've got a big old one coming straight towards me at the moment.
13:10 [WATER SPLASHING]
13:13 [HEART BEATING]
13:21 [HEART BEATING FASTER]
13:24 That behind me, that's a basking shark.
13:43 It is magical.
13:45 The only slight problem is my boat is steaming to fill with water.
13:49 Which is a bit concerning.
13:52 So I'm about a kilometre out.
13:55 So I think I'm going to have to turn and start heading back in.
13:57 Which is bloody painful.
14:00 Wow!
14:06 While I was bobbing on the sea, I bumped into Dave and his dog Scout.
14:14 I have to say it did remind me of the week before.
14:17 You see this was supposed to really be a family adventure.
14:20 I'd hoped to go out there in these conditions with my kids, with my wife and share this.
14:26 I think it is quite sad and wonderful seeing things like this.
14:31 But you do wish somebody was there.
14:33 However, with what happened next, and shall we say the tippiness of the boat that we'd borrowed
14:39 to try and allow us all to get to see the sharks, I was kind of glad that it was just me.
14:46 Oh crap!
14:48 My boat has gone down.
14:52 So I've got the two side panels okay, but the middle panel is gone.
14:55 So it's squeezing my legs together, which is quite awkward.
14:58 I'm not able to sit up, I'm having to lie down.
15:01 But I'm more than halfway back.
15:04 This is hard work.
15:06 I think I've just heard a dolphin as well.
15:08 I have, I've got a dolphin behind me.
15:13 Oh what an incredible day.
15:16 Actually getting out there amongst them.
15:18 I mean I've never been in a small boat with something that size.
15:22 I mean 8 to 10 metres some of those.
15:25 I'm filming them with a drone, I just want to see what the underwater footage is like.
15:30 But, ah Scotland.
15:32 Scotland in September.
15:34 It's beautiful and warm and I really have to go.
15:38 Because my kids need to get to swimming lessons and rugby.
15:42 This has all been done in one morning, a quick drive.
15:44 So I've got to get back down to Angus.
15:46 But, please like and subscribe.
15:49 Wonderful.
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