THE BASKING SHARK IN UK WATERS

		Shark Conference 2000 Online Documents Honolulu, Hawaii February 21-24
Sponsored By: The Barbara Delano Foundation The Homeland Foundation The David & Lucile Packard Foundation The AVINA Foundation	Presented By: WildAid Hawaii Audubon Society Pacific Fisheries Coalition
THE BASKING SHARK IN UK WATERS
Colin Speedie Wildlife Trusts Seaquest Project Seawatch Charter Waterside House, Falmouth Road Penryn, Cornwall TR10 8BE, United Kingdom Email: [email protected] The basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus) is the world's second largest fish at up to 10 metres in length and up to seven tonnes in weight. Occurring in temperate waters around the world, it has long been a regular visitor to the British Isles, complete with its own place in history and legend. Basking sharks are believed to have been the inspiration for many "sea monster" tales, particularly where a number were spotted together basking at the surface, showing a multitude of noses, tails and fins. Equally, many stranded basking sharks in varying stages of decomposition were misidentified as monsters, including the famous "Stronsay monster" found in the Orkney Isles, and the "Broad headed gazer" discovered in Cornwall. Myth and superstition were not allowed to get in the way of exploitation, though, and from the mid 1700s attempts were being made to develop basking shark fisheries in Ireland and the Western Isles of Scotland. Initially these fisheries involved netting and harpooning the sharks, with the liver oil (for lighting) being the main object of the fishery. Several attempts were made at creating specific fisheries in some of the Western Isles for the "cairban", often supported by substantial grants. Most of these efforts seem to have been doomed as much by the physical difficulties involved, as by the erratic nature of the sharks' appearance in most localities, and it seems likely that the fisheries remained opportunistic until the late1930s. It is now widely recognised that basking shark abundance is cyclical, with long periods of extreme paucity being followed by periods of substantial numbers, even in areas where there are regular shark sightings. This led, for example, to the setting up of opportunistic fisheries in areas such as the West of Scotland just prior and post World War II, which achieved varying degrees of success. Power driven vessels, whaling guns and specially modified harpoons all gave the hunters greater success in terms of the number of sharks captured, and with a more specific set of markets including that for liver oil, including squalene extracted from the oil, some of the hunters prospered for a time. However, through a combination of hubris, business incompetence, distance from the markets and the sheer physical difficulty of coping with such large prey from small boats, problems soon arose. Coupled with the vagaries of the cycle of abundance, the notoriously unpredictable weather and falling market values for the oil and squalene caused most of the hunters to soon throw in the towel. Other elements may well have played their part, too. The basking shark, in common with many other elasmobranchs, is a slow maturing, low fecundity animal ill equipped in reproductive terms to deal with concentrated fisheries effort. Not only were there several indigenous shark hunters involved in the Scottish fishery, but there were extra pressures from a fleet of Norwegian hunters taking sharks. The Norwegian crews were also far more efficient, being well trained men aboard purposely built vessels coming from an established fishery. Concentrating on the livers alone, they were reckoned to be able to have the livers aboard the vessel and the carcase dumped within ten minutes of harpooning the shark. It is now widely believed that this dramatic increase in effort had a serious impact on the stock, precipitating a collapse in the fishery. An even more dramatic version of this hypothesis occurred at Achill Island on the West coast of Ireland. There, a fishery was developed in which observers on the cliffs at Keem Bay spotted the sharks and called to men in boats who ring netted the sharks, before despatching them with lances. This fishery was highly successful in taking sharks, peaking at 1808 sharks taken in 1952, settling into an increasingly steep decline before finally collapsing in the 1970s, despite the introduction of larger vessels equipped with harpoon guns roving over a larger area in the final years. To date no recovery of the stock has been observed, giving further support to the theory that stocks may be discrete and therefore most vulnerable to concentrated exploitation. Through the 1980s conservation groups in the UK started to gather data on the basking shark, developing the argument that protection should be given under the precautionary principle. This was constantly refused by Government, but concern over a quota of livers enabling Norwegians to hunt in UK waters, and the continuing efforts of a single hunter in the Firth of Clyde helped to focus conservationists'efforts, and as these fisheries declined, so the argument escalated. When the Scottish fishery finally closed in 1994, efforts to win protection were redoubled. It took a change of Government to establish a measure of protection for the basking shark, which finally occurred in 1998, using data obtained from the fisheries to win the day. Pleasure in the victory was tempered somewhat by the knowledge that the protection only extended within the UK 12 mile limit, that the Norwegian liver quota was still in force, and that any shark outside our limits was still therefore fair game. An additional threat was purely financial, as the 1990s had seen a dramatic rise in the value of basking shark fins for the Asian soup trade. Indeed, in the latter days of the fishery the fins were the sole valuable product obtained as the value for oil and squalene had declined substantially owing to the development of new fisheries targeting other shark species for the same products. Substantial lobbying from a broad spectrum of interested conservation organisations was stepped up following this success, and the same arguments were refined and honed before being presented to the Government with a view to our officials putting forward the case for protection of the basking shark under CITES. With Government acceptance of the proposal, the stage is set for the next CITES meeting in April 2000. Research programmes have increased numerically in recent years in the UK, as the interest in the basking shark has grown. Recent findings from researchers such as Dr. David Sims of Aberdeen University have shown that basking sharks favour the interface between warm, oceanic fronts and cooler inshore water, and that the sharks actively search for the densest patches of plankton. Our Project is seeking to establish shark populations around the southwestern peninsula of Cornwall, using an 11.7m yacht as a research platform. Line transects through areas of high and low sightings density form the standard methodology, including the collection of a wide variety of environmental data. In addition, we are using still photography and digital video images to photo-identify individual sharks, which we believe is a first for this species, and after one season this aspect is already showing considerable promise. This has led to the development of a larger enterprise, to be known as the European Basking Shark photo-identification Project, to which researchers, divers and members of the public are being asked to contribute images. A CD-ROM of the initial images has been created, with simple data and contact details, to encourage researchers in all European countries to collaborate in sharing information, and to try and establish some straightforward answers to many of the outstanding questions regarding this enigmatic species in a non-invasive manner. Are the sharks faithful to certain localities year in year out, do they "migrate" between countries, are the groups being observed cohesive? We hope to find out, and with a current upswing in the numbers being observed, we are fortunate enough to have plenty of animals to choose from at present. We are also developing programmes to establish levels of ship strike, accidental bycatch and the effects of harassment of basking sharks in the area of our study, all of which constitute so far unquantified problems. Other major questions such as the sharks whereabouts in winter may be answered by satellite tagging, and continued efforts are being made using this technology, despite a number of abortive attempts so far. Further research into shark surface behaviour, including courtship and mating, together with regular sightings of sub 2m sharks may confirm that the groups using our waters form a breeding stock, and so are much in need of protection. Other unusual and rarely observed behaviour such as breaching has been regularly observed in association with the large groups of mature sharks currently being seen off our shores. It has been a momentous decade for the basking shark in UK waters. Ten years ago these gentle giants were only known to those who had the good fortune to see them from boats in summer, and public awareness of the species, the largest regular animal visitor to Britain, was non-existent. Now, interest in the sharks is growing so rapidly that we are in the unexpected position of having to draft measures which may include further legislation to defend the shark from harassment by an over enthusiastic public! They were also still being actively hunted, both by a local hunter and Norwegian vessels. Tireless efforts by a number of dedicated conservation organisations have changed all that, the sharks are now protected in our waters, and we stand in the vanguard seeking worldwide protection for the shark. Rather than view this as a parochial success for a single charismatic species, we hope that our experiences and modest successes will provide guidelines and hope to our fellow researchers and conservationists in other countries, fighting on behalf of this and other shark species, and to show that although the war is far from over, some small battles are being won.

Shark Conference 2000
Online Documents
Honolulu, Hawaii February 21-24

Sponsored By:
The Barbara Delano Foundation
The Homeland Foundation
The David & Lucile Packard Foundation
The AVINA Foundation

Presented By:
WildAid
Hawaii Audubon Society
Pacific Fisheries Coalition

THE BASKING SHARK IN UK WATERS

Colin Speedie
Wildlife Trusts Seaquest Project
Seawatch Charter
Waterside House, Falmouth Road
Penryn, Cornwall TR10 8BE, United Kingdom
Email: [email protected]

The basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus) is the world's second largest fish at up to 10 metres in length and up to seven tonnes in weight. Occurring in temperate waters around the world, it has long been a regular visitor to the British Isles, complete with its own place in history and legend.

Basking sharks are believed to have been the inspiration for many "sea monster" tales, particularly where a number were spotted together basking at the surface, showing a multitude of noses, tails and fins. Equally, many stranded basking sharks in varying stages of decomposition were misidentified as monsters, including the famous "Stronsay monster" found in the Orkney Isles, and the "Broad headed gazer" discovered in Cornwall. Myth and superstition were not allowed to get in the way of exploitation, though, and from the mid 1700s attempts were being made to develop basking shark fisheries in Ireland and the Western Isles of Scotland.

Initially these fisheries involved netting and harpooning the sharks, with the liver oil (for lighting) being the main object of the fishery. Several attempts were made at creating specific fisheries in some of the Western Isles for the "cairban", often supported by substantial grants. Most of these efforts seem to have been doomed as much by the physical difficulties involved, as by the erratic nature of the sharks' appearance in most localities, and it seems likely that the fisheries remained opportunistic until the late1930s.

It is now widely recognised that basking shark abundance is cyclical, with long periods of extreme paucity being followed by periods of substantial numbers, even in areas where there are regular shark sightings. This led, for example, to the setting up of opportunistic fisheries in areas such as the West of Scotland just prior and post World War II, which achieved varying degrees of success. Power driven vessels, whaling guns and specially modified harpoons all gave the hunters greater success in terms of the number of sharks captured, and with a more specific set of markets including that for liver oil, including squalene extracted from the oil, some of the hunters prospered for a time.

However, through a combination of hubris, business incompetence, distance from the markets and the sheer physical difficulty of coping with such large prey from small boats, problems soon arose. Coupled with the vagaries of the cycle of abundance, the notoriously unpredictable weather and falling market values for the oil and squalene caused most of the hunters to soon throw in the towel.

Other elements may well have played their part, too. The basking shark, in common with many other elasmobranchs, is a slow maturing, low fecundity animal ill equipped in reproductive terms to deal with concentrated fisheries effort. Not only were there several indigenous shark hunters involved in the Scottish fishery, but there were extra pressures from a fleet of Norwegian hunters taking sharks. The Norwegian crews were also far more efficient, being well trained men aboard purposely built vessels coming from an established fishery. Concentrating on the livers alone, they were reckoned to be able to have the livers aboard the vessel and the carcase dumped within ten minutes of harpooning the shark. It is now widely believed that this dramatic increase in effort had a serious impact on the stock, precipitating a collapse in the fishery.

An even more dramatic version of this hypothesis occurred at Achill Island on the West coast of Ireland. There, a fishery was developed in which observers on the cliffs at Keem Bay spotted the sharks and called to men in boats who ring netted the sharks, before despatching them with lances. This fishery was highly successful in taking sharks, peaking at 1808 sharks taken in 1952, settling into an increasingly steep decline before finally collapsing in the 1970s, despite the introduction of larger vessels equipped with harpoon guns roving over a larger area in the final years. To date no recovery of the stock has been observed, giving further support to the theory that stocks may be discrete and therefore most vulnerable to concentrated exploitation.

Through the 1980s conservation groups in the UK started to gather data on the basking shark, developing the argument that protection should be given under the precautionary principle. This was constantly refused by Government, but concern over a quota of livers enabling Norwegians to hunt in UK waters, and the continuing efforts of a single hunter in the Firth of Clyde helped to focus conservationists'efforts, and as these fisheries declined, so the argument escalated. When the Scottish fishery finally closed in 1994, efforts to win protection were redoubled.

It took a change of Government to establish a measure of protection for the basking shark, which finally occurred in 1998, using data obtained from the fisheries to win the day. Pleasure in the victory was tempered somewhat by the knowledge that the protection only extended within the UK 12 mile limit, that the Norwegian liver quota was still in force, and that any shark outside our limits was still therefore fair game.

An additional threat was purely financial, as the 1990s had seen a dramatic rise in the value of basking shark fins for the Asian soup trade. Indeed, in the latter days of the fishery the fins were the sole valuable product obtained as the value for oil and squalene had declined substantially owing to the development of new fisheries targeting other shark species for the same products.

Substantial lobbying from a broad spectrum of interested conservation organisations was stepped up following this success, and the same arguments were refined and honed before being presented to the Government with a view to our officials putting forward the case for protection of the basking shark under CITES. With Government acceptance of the proposal, the stage is set for the next CITES meeting in April 2000.

Research programmes have increased numerically in recent years in the UK, as the interest in the basking shark has grown. Recent findings from researchers such as Dr. David Sims of Aberdeen University have shown that basking sharks favour the interface between warm, oceanic fronts and cooler inshore water, and that the sharks actively search for the densest patches of plankton.

Our Project is seeking to establish shark populations around the southwestern peninsula of Cornwall, using an 11.7m yacht as a research platform. Line transects through areas of high and low sightings density form the standard methodology, including the collection of a wide variety of environmental data. In addition, we are using still photography and digital video images to photo-identify individual sharks, which we believe is a first for this species, and after one season this aspect is already showing considerable promise. This has led to the development of a larger enterprise, to be known as the European Basking Shark photo-identification Project, to which researchers, divers and members of the public are being asked to contribute images. A CD-ROM of the initial images has been created, with simple data and contact details, to encourage researchers in all European countries to collaborate in sharing information, and to try and establish some straightforward answers to many of the outstanding questions regarding this enigmatic species in a non-invasive manner. Are the sharks faithful to certain localities year in year out, do they "migrate" between countries, are the groups being observed cohesive? We hope to find out, and with a current upswing in the numbers being observed, we are fortunate enough to have plenty of animals to choose from at present. We are also developing programmes to establish levels of ship strike, accidental bycatch and the effects of harassment of basking sharks in the area of our study, all of which constitute so far unquantified problems.

Other major questions such as the sharks whereabouts in winter may be answered by satellite tagging, and continued efforts are being made using this technology, despite a number of abortive attempts so far. Further research into shark surface behaviour, including courtship and mating, together with regular sightings of sub 2m sharks may confirm that the groups using our waters form a breeding stock, and so are much in need of protection. Other unusual and rarely observed behaviour such as breaching has been regularly observed in association with the large groups of mature sharks currently being seen off our shores.

It has been a momentous decade for the basking shark in UK waters. Ten years ago these gentle giants were only known to those who had the good fortune to see them from boats in summer, and public awareness of the species, the largest regular animal visitor to Britain, was non-existent. Now, interest in the sharks is growing so rapidly that we are in the unexpected position of having to draft measures which may include further legislation to defend the shark from harassment by an over enthusiastic public! They were also still being actively hunted, both by a local hunter and Norwegian vessels. Tireless efforts by a number of dedicated conservation organisations have changed all that, the sharks are now protected in our waters, and we stand in the vanguard seeking worldwide protection for the shark. Rather than view this as a parochial success for a single charismatic species, we hope that our experiences and modest successes will provide guidelines and hope to our fellow researchers and conservationists in other countries, fighting on behalf of this and other shark species, and to show that although the war is far from over, some small battles are being won.