Basking shark may have been strangled by illegal salmon fishing net

THE discovery of a dead basking shark, suffocated in a monofilament net, on a beach in south Kerry led to claims yesterday that such nets are still being used for salmon fishing.

The use of monofilament nets to catch salmon was banned last November, but the basking shark had around 20 yards of monofilament wrapped around its mouth.

Jerome Dowling, one of the people who came upon the carcass at Fermoyle beach, near Castlegregory, claimed it was a salmon net.