Video: Irish Angler Meets Basking Shark
OutdoorHub Reporters 07.26.13
Kayak angler Graham Smith felt that something was following him on his fishing trip to Tullagh Bay in northernmost part of Ireland. Looking down, he discovered that he had wandered across a school of two-ton basking sharks.
“There were five of them and they were swimming around and they came closer and closer,” Smith told the Belfast Telegraph. “When I was swapping my position, one of them started following me.”
Eager to take up the opportunity, Smith began filming the underwater giant with a GoPro camera.The basking shark is the world’s second largest living fish. In the video below you can see the basking shark moving along slowly to pick up plankton and other small animals. Through filter feeding, these animals can pump an enormous amount of water through their gill rakers each hour. They are not aggressive, but Smith remains prudently cautious while filming.
Basking sharks were given their name because they appear to enjoy “basking” in warm waters near the surface.
