Meeting the giant Basking shark

The nordic whale shark?

If there´s been one shark that I´ve always really wanted to see - it´s the basking shark. They were once common in all the North sea area - but they are now almost all gone. Commercial fisheries (Trawlers) are the main threat to the speices here in scandinavia.

Therefore - a couple of weeks ago I traveled to the island of Coll in Scotland. It´s one of the last places where you still can find them in large numbers.

Unfortunately - the weather worked against us most of the week - and it had not been a sighting of the sharks in the two past weeks when I arrived.

After two days on the sea, we saw our first shark. The sea was rough, the wind was cold and the water was full of plancton - perfect for basking sharks. - not really perfect for a photographer.. still .. It was beautiful.