00:00 [Heartbeat]
00:04 Anybody who's watched any of my videos will know I have a great love of Scotland's wildlife.
00:10 Especially those big charismatic creatures that live beneath the waves.
00:17 And while I've had great experiences with things like orca and minke whale,
00:22 there was one honorary citation that I've never really had much of a look at
00:29 until the few and very special days in early autumn of 2023.
00:37 Keep watching, this is a good one. Oh, and you might want to like and subscribe.
00:44 Well, good morning. So, this is Nairn Beach up on the Moray Coast
00:54 on a stunning morning. Absolutely beautiful.
00:59 The reason I'm here is looking for sharks.
01:06 Now, for some reason, Nairn Bay seems to have become shark central recently
01:13 with 20 to 30 basking sharks being seen here.
01:18 So, I've decided to come and have a look myself.
01:22 Our basking sharks are massive, up to 12 metres long.
01:29 So, if you've just seen the footage of us arriving, that sea kayak's 4 metres long.
01:33 So, three of those end to end.
01:36 They can weigh up to about 5 tonnes, which is bigger than an Indian elephant,
01:41 not quite as big as an African elephant.
01:44 And I'm going to have a look through the telescope, see if I can see anything.
01:49 And I'll report back.
01:52 [Music]
01:54 So, 30 in a bay on the east coast of Scotland is quite strange.
02:12 I met a guy a couple of times, Colin Speedy, who's probably the expert on basking sharks in Britain,
02:18 or one of the top ones. And he started studying them in the sort of, I think, the late 80s and 90s.
02:26 And when he was studying them, at that point, he was down on the coast of Cornwall,
02:31 because that was the sort of main place to see basking sharks then.
02:36 And eventually, he moved his research up to the Hebrides, to the west coast of Scotland,
02:42 because he wasn't seeing them in Cornwall so much, but he was seeing them there.
02:47 And I'm wondering now whether or not warming of the oceans has meant that they're going to start
02:53 being seen a lot more on this coast instead of the Hebrides.
02:57 I mean, certainly we've had some strange sightings.
03:00 Last week, I had a group of between 100 and 250 common dolphin off the Aberdeenshire coast.
03:08 That's unusual. They're a warm water species.
03:13 So, something you'd associate again with the west coast of Scotland, which is a lot warmer, the seas are.
03:20 But, yeah, to have that number here, and to have this number of basking sharks,
03:26 although it would be nice to actually see one.
03:29 I can see one.
03:39 Ollie, you know on the other coast, can you see there's like a yellow buoy or something?
03:49 So, we've got a big old basking shark out there now.
03:53 But it's too far away to show you on the camera, so we're going to send in the aerial division.
04:00 So, drones away.
04:07 Eventually.
04:09 Unfortunately, it turned out that there were relatively few sharks on the surface, and a lot of sea.
04:28 So, sadly, we didn't manage to find any sharks in the boat.
04:32 However, we decided to go with plan B.
04:37 So, we went back, picked up the rest of the family, and headed out on a boat to try and see if we could get a good look at them.
04:43 And with Harry taking on the duty of skipper, we were obviously in for a really good chance.
04:49 Sadly, it actually became quite a lot rougher, and I was quite glad that I wasn't actually out there on a kayak at the time.
04:59 But we did find some sharks, although a moving vessel in fairly choppy waters wasn't the best for filming.
05:06 This view reminded me of one of my early views of basking sharks, when I was up near Fair Isle doing a whaling dolphin survey.
05:16 I couldn't work out what was going on.
05:18 It was a flat calm sea, and there was a large seabird swimming straight ahead.
05:23 And behind it was a small seabird going nuts, going side to side.
05:28 I couldn't work out what it was at all, until I suddenly realised that the large seabird at the front was the big dorsal fin,
05:34 and the small seabird at the back was that tail swishing from side to side.
05:40 We saw probably 10 basking sharks on this trip, including one that could almost be described as cute.
05:49 It must have been only 2-3 metres long, a little baby one.
05:55 We had a great time, and we decided to head back in and leave the area,
06:03 because we thought our times with basking sharks was now done.
06:08 Morning.
06:21 I'm back at Nairn.
06:24 I was here last Saturday, and we saw some in the distance, but we couldn't find them that well.
06:32 So we went out on a boat trip, but by then the conditions had got a lot rougher.
06:38 So we did see some, and there's quite a lot of footage here of a couple of them that came really close to the boat.
06:44 In fact, I reckon I must have seen maybe 12 sharks that day, including one late on in the day up at Hopeman.
06:54 But I thought that was me done for basking sharks, and then I was on Facebook yesterday,
07:00 and somebody had been here and counted 54 in one go, doing a scan across.
07:08 And I saw the weather conditions and thought, it's got to be worth a try.
07:12 So I've done a bit of filming with a camera, but I'm now going to see if I can get something a bit closer to her.
07:40 Right, OK, so ridiculously bright conditions for filming me talking to you, but oh, what a stunning day.
07:50 I've got my little Mavic 2 out there.
07:59 And there's a lot of sharks, but there's a lot of sea.
08:05 So I'm just trying to find them.
08:10 Good thing is that the reception's good.
08:15 I've been trying to line up and actually put them on the right course, put the drone on the right course, using the telescope.
08:23 Sorry, that telescope, this camera, to try and actually get me into the right area.
08:28 I should be getting into the area quite soon.
08:32 I have to say, watching me fly a drone is probably not the most interesting thing you can be doing.
08:37 So I'm going to switch things around and show you any footage, if I manage to get any.
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10:55 Ah, it's beautiful.
10:58 Could have put a bit more air in the boat.
11:01 Flat calm.
11:03 Haven't seen the shark yet.
11:05 Seen the seal, seen some gillimots.
11:08 Got a little bit wet.
11:10 But fingers crossed.
11:12 I'm going to press on out a bit further.
11:14 So we'll see how it goes.
11:16 Shame that there's no way for me to really have this stood up nicely as I'm paddling.
11:21 But, oh well, you can't have everything.
11:24 [AUDIO OUT]
11:27 Got my first sharks.
11:34 I can see three in the distance, long way off.
11:38 Beautiful conditions. I mean, this couldn't be a flatter calm I see.
11:43 So I'm going to head out into the general area and then bob, bob around for a bit.
11:49 See what happens.
11:51 As I go chasing them, I'll go into the general sort of distance away that they are.
11:56 And I'll have a bob and tell you what I see.
11:59 I've got the old 7D Mark II and my 100-400 lens with me.
12:05 Not quite expendable, but might be worth a try if things get interesting.
12:12 Right, I'm going to carry on.
12:14 [AUDIO OUT]
12:20 So I'm about a kilometre and a bit out from Nairn now.
12:26 And in front of me is...
12:29 ...12 basking sharks at least.
12:35 And you can probably hear that call going on.
12:43 There's a fair few razorbills around.
12:47 So the basking sharks are ahead of me.
12:50 They're kind of on the way-ish back home.
12:54 So I'm just going to very slowly, very slowly sort of float towards them.
13:02 I've got a big old one coming straight towards me at the moment.
13:10 [WATER SPLASHING]
13:13 [HEART BEATING]
13:21 [HEART BEATING FASTER]
13:24 That behind me, that's a basking shark.
13:43 It is magical.
13:45 The only slight problem is my boat is steaming to fill with water.
13:49 Which is a bit concerning.
13:52 So I'm about a kilometre out.
13:55 So I think I'm going to have to turn and start heading back in.
13:57 Which is bloody painful.
14:00 Wow!
14:06 While I was bobbing on the sea, I bumped into Dave and his dog Scout.
14:14 I have to say it did remind me of the week before.
14:17 You see this was supposed to really be a family adventure.
14:20 I'd hoped to go out there in these conditions with my kids, with my wife and share this.
14:26 I think it is quite sad and wonderful seeing things like this.
14:31 But you do wish somebody was there.
14:33 However, with what happened next, and shall we say the tippiness of the boat that we'd borrowed
14:39 to try and allow us all to get to see the sharks, I was kind of glad that it was just me.
14:46 Oh crap!
14:48 My boat has gone down.
14:52 So I've got the two side panels okay, but the middle panel is gone.
14:55 So it's squeezing my legs together, which is quite awkward.
14:58 I'm not able to sit up, I'm having to lie down.
15:01 But I'm more than halfway back.
15:04 This is hard work.
15:06 I think I've just heard a dolphin as well.
15:08 I have, I've got a dolphin behind me.
15:13 Oh what an incredible day.
15:16 Actually getting out there amongst them.
15:18 I mean I've never been in a small boat with something that size.
15:22 I mean 8 to 10 metres some of those.
15:25 I'm filming them with a drone, I just want to see what the underwater footage is like.
15:30 But, ah Scotland.
15:32 Scotland in September.
15:34 It's beautiful and warm and I really have to go.
15:38 Because my kids need to get to swimming lessons and rugby.
15:42 This has all been done in one morning, a quick drive.
15:44 So I've got to get back down to Angus.
15:46 But, please like and subscribe.
15:49 Wonderful.
15:52 [Splash]
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