For Argyll

A sharp eye spotted a basking shark in the waters just off the shore of east Loch Fyne, at Letters, a few days ago. Basking sharks aree not aggressive. They are described as ‘filter feeders’ - like living sieves really. They cruise with their huge maws constantly open, filtering and processing the quantities of plankton that they live on. In the 1970s Loch Fyne was used to seeing several in a season and other areas in Argyll beyond the Clyde waterways - like Coll and Tiree, see them regularly. Scotland’s Marine Conservation would appreciate it if folk in coastal Argyll and its islands reported all shark sightings. Phone 0131 2262391.

Photo above is by Chris Gotschalk, published in Wikipedia and is a public domain image used with his complete permission.