Latest news with #baskingshark
CBC
10-07-2025
- Science
- CBC
RAW VIDEO: The basking shark that Don Gauthier spotted off P.E.I.'s North Shore
People out in a boat off Prince Edward Island's North Shore react to seeing a large basking shark emerging from the cold waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
CBC
08-07-2025
- Science
- CBC
10-metre member of 'mysterious' shark species spotted off P.E.I.'s North Shore
Video of the basking shark that Don Gauthier spotted off P.E.I.'s North Shore 9 hours ago Duration 0:48 Social Sharing A member of the world's second-largest species of fish was spotted off the North Shore of P.E.I. by a group of people returning from a deep-sea fishing trip this past week. Don Gauthier and his family spotted the basking shark just about a kilometre and half offshore near New London Bay and French River, at around 8:30 p.m. on Thursday. "My partner was on her binoculars, just spotting things out, and she saw a bunch of birds just flying around in this one specific area and spotted some fin," Gauthier told CBC News on Monday. The boat's captain said it could be some small whales, so Gauthier pulled out his phone to zoom in. He remembers saying: "I don't think those are whales; I think that's a shark." It was almost like it was entertaining us. — Don Gauthier When the captain cut the boat's engines, the fin started coming toward the vessel. "That's a basking shark," the captain said, according to Gauthier. "I haven't seen one of those in years." Gauthier said the shark approached the boat, moving in a side-to-side pattern. "It was almost like it was entertaining us. It was very interesting because it — you know, it came up and you would see it open its mouth up. It was feeding, I would assume, and then it would go back down and come up from the other side of the boat. "It was just unbelievable. I was so amazed at the size of it.... I was just completely stunned." 'A shark trying to be a whale' Basking sharks are indeed quite large creatures, according to Boris Worm, a professor in marine conservation and biology at Dalhousie University in Halifax. "They're basically a shark trying to be a whale," Worm said of Cetorhinus maximus. Gauthier estimated the basking shark his family saw was between 20- and 30-feet long, or seven to 10 metres. Worm said that's a normal-sized specimen, but the sharks can reach up to 12 metres. He added there are no accounts of a basking shark ever causing harm to humans. Over the past 30 years, Worm said, there have been only a few sightings off the Island's North Shore in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. He said basking sharks aren't exceedingly rare, but the species does typically swim in deeper waters. "It's a very large fish, it moves very slowly and it's mysterious," he said. There's a lot of things we would love to know about them, but they're just really hard to track. — Boris Worm, Dalhousie University "We don't know how old they get, for example. We don't know how many there are. We don't know when their population is going up or down. "There's a lot of things we would love to know about them, but they're just really hard to track." Worm said changing climate conditions could affect where basking sharks get their food, possibly leading them to waters off the North Shore to chase where their prey are going. He noted a similar shift in feeding area has already led the endangered North Atlantic right whale to be more common in northern waters such as those in Atlantic Canada. "It's important that when you see this species to report these sightings, because every sighting helps us to understand the distribution a little bit better," he said of the basking shark. A new perspective As for Gauthier, he said he had mixed feelings about the July 3 encounter. "The initial feeling was definitely a little bit of concern, but it passed really quickly. When the captain explained to us what we were witnessing, it just turned immediately to just complete amazement," he said. "I've never witnessed anything like this. This was spectacular." He said being so close to the basking shark gave him some new perspective. "You realize how small you are in an environment like that, on the water, on the ocean, and you see this beautiful creature. I just hope people can appreciate the magnitude of it and just be more responsible with how we treat our climate," he said.
Forbes
03-07-2025
- Science
- Forbes
What Basking Sharks Tell Us About The Climate Crisis
Understanding basking shark behavior over a full year reveals how they adapt to environmental shifts ... More and why that matters for ocean conservation. Basking sharks (Cetorhinus maximus) are the second largest fish in the world, yet we still know surprisingly little about where they go and what they do once they disappear from surface waters. A new study fills some of those gaps by thanks to some tagged basking sharks who were blinged out with high-tech gear off the coast of northern Norway to allow scientists to track their movements across an entire year. These animals, which feed on microscopic zooplankton, are usually spotted cruising near the surface in summer months, often around rich feeding grounds. But once the feeding season is over, their next moves have remained something of a mystery, especially in high-latitude regions like the Arctic where climate change is already transforming the ocean landscape. By using pop-up satellite archival tags (PSATs), researchers were able to follow these sharks well beyond the usual study windows, gathering high-resolution data that revealed just how dynamic and adaptable these animals can be. Two female basking sharks have provided particularly detailed migration tracks. One left the chilly Arctic waters and traveled all the way to the beautiful Azores in the central Atlantic before returning north, completing a round-trip migration spanning thousands of miles. The other female did something quite different, staying north of the Arctic Circle through much of the winter and only moving to the North Sea in the spring. These two vastly differing paths illustrate just how variable shark behavior can be, even within the same species and tagging location. Both individuals, however, showed an impressive ability to tolerate a wide range of ocean temperatures. One was recorded diving into sub-zero waters (a first for this species!), stretching the known limits of this shark's thermal limits and shows how they might cope with rapid environmental shifts. By collecting data every five seconds, the recovered tags also offered an unprecedented view into how these sharks use their environment. In deeper oceanic waters, they followed a pattern known as diel vertical migration — rising toward the surface at night and sinking during the day — likely to track zooplankton that do the same to avoid predators. But their behavior over continental shelf regions was more erratic and shaped by the seafloor, local water layers, and prey availability. Zooplankton are influenced by light levels, temperature gradients, and ocean features like fronts and currents, and the sharks seemed to align their movements with these prey-driven cues. In some areas, they dove deep during the day to follow food. In others, they tracked bioluminescent events, showing how finely tuned their behavior is to their surroundings. This kind of behavioral flexibility (or "plasticity") may be what helps basking sharks survive in such a fast-changing world. Basking sharks are active navigators, capable of tracking prey through complex environments and ... More adjusting to rapidly shifting conditions. But that doesn't mean they're safe. Unlike many large marine species that are restricted to certain habitats or temperature bands, basking sharks seem to be able to tolerate a broad thermal range and switch up their foraging strategies depending on where they are. That makes them more resilient in theory… but also harder to protect. As global climate change alters ocean temperatures, currents, and food web dynamics, these sharks will likely need to keep adjusting their movements. But unless we understand what drives those movements now, it will be hard to predict where they'll go in the future or what new risks they might face along the way. Like other large marine megafauna, basking sharks play an important role in shaping ocean ecosystems. Although they do not eat other large animals like top predators do, they are still considered keystone species because of how they influence plankton populations and energy flow in the ocean. These gentle giants also share something else with animals like whales and sea turtles: wide-ranging movements that take them across international boundaries and into areas increasingly affected by human activity. Fishing, shipping, pollution, and warming seas all threaten their survival. And because these sharks are endangered, understanding when and where they're most at risk is a conservation priority. Their adaptability gives them a fighting chance, but conservation measures still need to account for the full range of habitats they use, including those in remote or deep-water regions.
BBC News
06-06-2025
- Science
- BBC News
Falmouth Basket Shark aims to raise sea pollution awareness
A creative project aiming to raise awareness of marine pollution is set to see a 20ft (6.1m) model of a basking shark - made from sustainable materials - taken to a Cornish Basket Shark has been made out of items including willow, pallet wood and bamboo in a project led by Falmouth University lecturer Duncan model has been on display in Falmouth's National Maritime Museum during the half-term break and is set to travel down to Gyllyngvase Beach on Sunday to mark World Ocean Cameron said the plan was for the shark to stay at the beach during summer so people could fill it up with plastic found on the sand, before it is taken back to the university in the autumn. He added the year-long project had been set up to highlight the dangers of plastic and marine pollution with a "carbon-neutral but high-impact" project involved other groups including Plastic Free Mylor, the National Maritime Museum, the Shark Trust and Surfers Against Sewage, who worked alongside Mr Cameron and students to develop the shark. He added he was delighted with how the project had gone and been able to let "voices be heard" on an important subject."It's a creative project, but underneath it all there's this larger conversation about plastic in the sea," Mr Cameron said."With all projects, you have an idea and plan and hope to bring people along with you and there have been hundreds of voices in making this shark."
Daily Mail
29-05-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
Terror in Rhode Island as enormous TWENTY FOOT shark is spotted swimming in pond
A 20-foot basking shark was spotted swimming near Rhode Island 's Block Island on Monday. Footage of the large animal first surfaced on Memorial Day, after Jennifer Seebeck spotted a large dorsal fin rising out of the waters in the Great Salt Pond, on an island off the south coast of the state. Seebeck had been dining at nearby restaurant Dead Eye Dick's when she managed to capture the shark near the surface of the water. In the clip, the shark can be seen going through the waters and past a seemingly vacant small boat. Other diners in the background can be heard passing comment on the animals appearance and laughing. The Atlantic Shark Institute shared the clip to their social media pages, causing it to go viral. In it, the organization said: 'We got a number of calls yesterday as people on Block Island, RI were treated to quite the scene, kicking off the 2025 summer season! 'Clearly a very large shark and reminiscent of a scene from Jaws on this 50th anniversary of the film.' View this post on Instagram A post shared by Atlantic Shark Institute (@atlantic_shark) They added: 'Sharks are arriving in Rhode Island daily as water temperatures continue to rise and more and more species of shark find them suitable to their liking. 'Hopefully this shark will find its way out of Great Salt Pond soon and continue on its way!' The institutes director Jon Dodd later revealed that the animal was a basking shark that was around 20 feet long. He told WBZ-TV: 'They are harmless filter-feeders but that wouldn't matter much if you were in the water when one came cruising by!' The New England Aquarium say that basking sharks are the second-largest fish species after the whale shark and eat plankton. Dodd also told Fox that basking sharks prefer cooler waters and are regularly spotted around Rhode Island during the summer months. He said: 'This is a shark that we will see fairly consistently. They're considered vulnerable according to the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature). 'In many parts of the world they're considered endangered', Dodd added. He also believes that the shark probably likely ended up in the pond after making a mistake on his travels. 'This guy just made a mistake. He must've been cruising up the west side of Block Island and said, "Hey, let me explore what's going on in this pond", and found himself in the wrong place.' The shark is since have believed to have left the pond around a day after being spotted. Dodd added that the sighting was a good sign for marine conservationists. In 2018 a group of fishermen filmed themselves releasing a huge great white shark that they managed to catch less than a mile away from a Rhode Island Beach. First mate Michael Lorello said the predator measured six feet long and was caught not far away from the popular pleasure beach of Misquamicut.
