Basking sharks were once hunted widely around Scotland, but since 1998 they’ve been a protected


species. Now, researchers have found two ‘hotspots’ off Scotland’s west coast that are highly important for the sharks, as Colin Speedie reports


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Hunting basking shark around Arran, 1770.


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Basking sharks are active all year round. In winter, they move to depths of up to 900m to feed on deep water plankton.


The waters of the west coast of Scotland have long been home to the basking shark, the world’s second largest fish. Shoals of them usually arrive early in the summer, when they can often be seen swimming at the surface, feeding on the rich supply of tiny plankton that bloom then. This habit of ‘basking’ at the surface not only makes the sharks highly visible, but was also responsible over the centuries for making them vulnerable to hunting.


The first written accounts of the basking shark in Scottish waters come from the 1760s, when the country’s first recorded shark fishery operated from the island of Canna in the Inner Hebrides. Locals hunted the sharks from small boats using hand-held harpoons. Although this fishery proved unprofitable, it was soon followed by others, all the way from Shetland to Arran in the Firth of Clyde. The hunters were after oil from the shark’s liver, which can form up to a quarter of its body weight. This was highly valued at the time, being used mainly as lamp oil, but also serving as a balm for aching limbs. Shark hunting continued on and off over the following


two centuries, before increasing greatly in the period between the 1930s and 1950s. Large numbers of shark were present, and hunters from the Firth of Clyde and the Sea of the Hebrides set sail in pursuit of the liver oil. It was now much in demand as an oil for fine-grade machines and aircrafts, being sold for high prices on the world market. However, this hunting bonanza ultimately ended in


failure. The scarcity of sharks, the changeable weather and falling oil prices all played a part, although some fairly terrible business decisions also contributed. Many of the hunters – most notably the celebrated nature writer Gavin Maxwell – left highly readable accounts of their adventures, including valuable information on the key hunting grounds that they revisited many times.


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The Nature of Scotland


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