Basking shark may have been strangled by illegal salmon fishing net
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.
“This was an active salmon drift net. I’m sure of that. It’s obvious the net was out there and the shark got stuck in it,” he said.
However, the South Western Regional Fisheries Board said it was by no means certain the net was being used for salmon fishing.
Mr Dowling, a member of the National Salmon Commission, said the shark was apparently strangled in the net. Basking sharks fed on plankton near the surface of the water where salmon nets would also be, he added.
“Winds were northerly in recent weeks and the shark didn't come from 1,000 miles away. Also, the chances that the net was drifting out there since last year are minute in the extreme,” he said.
“It’s very disappointing given that a scheme has been put in place to end drift netting.
“One of the reasons for ending drift netting was that it indiscriminately killed many forms of wildlife, including other fish and birds that dive for fish,” he went on.
Mr Dowling said another dead shark was found in similar circumstances on the beach last August.
South Western Regional Fisheries Board manager Aidan Barry, however, said the monofilament found on the latest shark need not necessarily have been used for salmon fishing.
Monofilament was also used for tuna fishing and for bottom fishing near the sea floor, he went on.
Mr Barry also said a large amount of abandoned nets used in the past were still ‘ghost’ fishing at sea and not checked by fishermen. Fish were continually being caught up in such nets.
“All this underlines how important it is to recover and properly dispose of nets,” he said.
But he also said that payments due under a hardship scheme to compensate former drift net salmon fishermen would not be made until all salmon nets had been surrendered.
“Nets used in the past must be given to the fishery board,” he emphasised.
THE basking shark is a huge filter-feeding shark which grows to 33 feet long.
The second largest shark after the whale shark, it is also known as the sunfish, the bone shark and even the ‘big mouth’ shark.
Harmless to humans, it has a huge mouth which it uses to collect tiny food.
A sluggish swimmer with huge gills and dark, bristle-like gill rakers, it filters its food from the water.
Its snout is short and conical.
As the basking shark swims with its mouth open, masses of water filled with prey flow through its mouth.
The prey includes plankton, baby fish, and fish eggs. After closing its mouth, gill rakers filter the nourishment from thewater.
Water is expelled through five pairs of gill slits. The shark can process more than 1,500 gallons of water per hour.
Basking sharks live in coastal temperate waters, and spend most of their time at the surface.
Hence their nickname, sunfish.
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