Until 1984 basking sharks were hunted to near oblivion off the west coast for their liver oil- 1,600 were killed in 1951 alone. Thanks to conservation efforts however this species is thriving again. Photo is of one of the 40 spotted feeding on plankton in Dingle Bay yesterday. (Credit: Nick Massett)

19 comments

1. There beyond the shark would be a great location for a Star Wars movie.

2. Gentle giants

3. Pointy finned bastards going around thinking their better than us

4. I remember seeing one at the Carrickareed bridge in Antrim a few summers ago, was quite a sight

5. This genuinely blew my mind, thanks for sharing! Never knew we had any sharks around these parts

6. Love this so much ❤️

7. i remember seeing them in Donegal long time ago

8. When I was like 18 we were swimming off a boat at the mouth of Cork harbour. One of the girls on the boat was screaming at myself and another guy in the water that there was something huge in the water. I swear something grazed my foot as I was swimming back to the boat. It turned out to be at least 2 basking sharks, as long as the boat with no interest in us at all. Nearly had a heart attack.

9. My dad tells stories about how he would see them in the bay when he was a boy.

   As recent as 1984. That is crazy.

10. There’s a fantastic book about the basking shark hunting around Islay called Shark-O by Patrick Fitzgerald O’Connor if you can get a copy of it. Some of these guys were fucking maniacs using homemade harpoon guns and the like. Really interesting book.

11. Imagine the amount of plastic they eat.

12. I understood that shark hunting in Ireland had died out long before Flaherty made Man of Aran in 1934
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_of_Aran

13. 1951 was a rough year.

14. Good. Our marine biodiversity is actually relatively good for Northern Europe unlike our land.

15. Is there a website where you can track sightings? I’ll be around Dingle tomorrow

16. Jaysus good news..that makes a change

17. Are they Ireland’s most exotic creature?

    I know they’re all over the world but we have a lot of them along our shores so I think we should claim them!

18. Here’s hoping they continue to thrive. If you want to do something to contribute to this consider using less plastic in your day to day life. It’s a blight on oceanic ecosystems.

19. Is this what the Fungie boats have transitioned to since he died? Tours of the bay, the cliffs, and sharks?