Taken whilst on a boat trip out of Padstow. The skipper had got a message over the radio that there were basking sharks in the area so we diverted from the planned trip to see seals at Gulland Rock in Padstow Bay. We weren't disappointed as suddenly we found ourselves among a school of about 25 of these huge fish that were seemingly oblivious to the presence of our boat, the Jubilee Queen, which must be 60ft long, as they swam around and under us with their dorsal and caudal fins out of the water and their mouths wide open. All of the animals seemed to be between 10 and 15 feet long. Only four can be seen in this photo which I'm afraid isn't brilliant. The spectacle went on for 10 minutes or so before the sharks disappeared almost as quickly as they arrived. We did a return trip about three years later and spoke to the skipper who remembered the day we saw the sharks but said he had never seen as many before that day, nor since.
Uploaded to Geograph by Ian Andrews on 8 August 2005
Photo © Ian Andrews, 8 August 2005. Licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons licence