SOSF Basking Shark Research Featured on BBC One

Today the ongoing research into basking sharks off the coast of Scotland by SOSF scientists Dr Mauvis Gore and Dr Rupert Ormond was featured on BBC One programme Animal 24:7. Their work aims to build a comprehensive photographic database of UK observed basking sharks, while simultaneously using satellite tracking to observe and investigate their migratory movements into international waters. Last year Mauvis and her team revealed that basking sharks in British waters do in fact undertake transoceanic migrations, when one individual with a satellite tag was recorded to travel between the Isle of Man, UK, and the waters off the Newfoundland shelf, 9589km away. Mauvis emphasised that this result meant that: ‘International collaboration with governments and scientists and the protection of basking sharks across all ocean regions is essential if this species is to survive.’

If you missed the programme and are from the UK you can view it again on BBC iPlayer here. For more information on the SOSF basking shark project you can view its homepage here.