One of the basking sharks seen during the filming last week
We had the OneShow film team for their yearly update on Scottish basking sharks with us last week and they are great to work with. They had the most amazing luck as the weather forecast was for force 7 at times, yet we not only found a number of basking sharks but the sun came out as well. Mauvis’s MSc student Holly Allan was with us to see the sharks and to learn how to take photo-id shots, having spent several months going through our photo-id catalogue looking for matches of the dorsal fins over time. Rupert found the decisive sharks for the sunny part of the filming, handling our boat Fairy Tern well in the rough waters. Nephew Austin was on board, not sure what to make of it all. SOSF Dan is coming up to film and is undecided about the cat Smudge that will be accompanying us on our surveys for basking shark next week.
Comments (1)
The Foundation for the Protection of Marine Megafauna has begun a worldwide study on the behaviour and migratory patterns of the newly-described giant manta ray (Manta birostris). Initial observations suggest that this species may be more migratory and oceanic than its smaller relative, the reef manta (Manta 
Seasonal reports of giant manta rays from the small island of Laje de Santos off Brazil have led to an annual migration of scuba divers to the area to view these amazing creatures. There are no regular sightings of this species from anywhere else along the long Brazilian coastline, which leads to some intriguing questions: where do the mantas come from, and where they go when they leave this small marine protected area?
On World Oceans Day 2009 however all that changed for the better when the waters surrounding the island were proclaimed a marine protected area. The foresightedness and environmental ethos of the newly elected Maldives government, the hard work of Save our Seas Foundation marine biologist Guy Stevens and National Geographic magazine’s ability to reach more than 50 million people around the globe has given Hanifaru’s manta rays and whale sharks a fighting chance to survive into perpetuity.
