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 Basking Shark Stranding at Gamper Bay, Sennen |
Around 10pm on the 14/06/07, Shark Trust member and British Diver’s Marine Life Rescue medic Rory Goodall received a call from one of BDMLR’s West Cornwall  coordinators, Tim Bain, to say that a BS had been spotted from Land’s End tangled in pot buoy ropes. As it was in an area only accessible from the sea, and it was almost dark, Rory decided to wait until first thing in the morning to verify the sighting.
Next day Rory located the animal without difficulty, and as he detected no sign of movement, surmised that the shark was probably dead. At this point the responsibility for a stranded animal shifts to CWT to record through the CWT Strandings network, run by a dedicated team of volunteers, of which Rory is also one of. He takes up the story.
“Surprisingly few BS’s get trapped in nets or ropes, considering just how many of all three can be around at certain times, so it’s very rare for us to be able to examine and record a fresh specimen which this one was .My problem was how to get the shark to the nearest landing place at Sennen cove, a mile away. I had a wildlife watching boat trip to run in a couple of hours time myself, but strong South Westerly’s were forecast imminently so I doubted whether I could get my boat round the 7 miles from Penzance to tow the 5mt fish in and get back to collect my passengers. At this point I almost gave up, after all the fisherman that owned the pots would come along eventually and cut the Basker adrift and it might wash ashore. The more I thought about it though, I just could n’t leave it to chance. We had to make the most from the death of this animal, expand our knowledge of these amazing creatures and create something positive from this sad situation. I decided to phone Sennen Lifeboat Coxswain Terry George, who was also in the local Fishermen’s association, in the hope that he might use his influence to arrange a tow from one of the local boats. He had helped us before when a Leatherback Turtle had similarly also become entangled.”
Rory knew it was a delicate situation. Although it’s not an offence to accidentally trap animals in legally set fishing gear, Sennen is a big tourist destination, and it would not look good for the fishermen if visitors with very little knowledge of these matters saw them bring in the entangled shark.
“I was fully expecting them to refuse my request, as there had been a lot of publicity about the sharks in the local papers over the previous weeks, so I was pleasantly surprised when Terry informed me that the men had agreed to tow the Basker onto the beach, as long as we recorded the animal as quickly as possible, and I promised to have it removed immediately after by the local council. Yet more frantic phone calls, but eventually I got every thing organised. My time was fast running out before I needed to leave on my boat trip, so I told Terry I couldn’t be there myself.”
Luckily, Caroline Curtis, one of CWT’s most experienced volunteers, who had attended other Basking shark strandings, was available to record the male shark and take skin and muscle samples for DNA testing. Penwith Council operatives were standing by, and whisked the giant fish away to a landfill site, the moment Caroline finished her work.
This was a good example how different organisations can work together to solve the many varied and complex problems posed by the needs of humans to take fish for food from the seas in a sustainable way and minimise the threats to non target species that share the same habitats. |
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| Thanks to Rory for contacting the Shark Trust about this and to all of the people who were involved in the operation. |
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