A Basking Shark

Today's was a stunning morning for a gentle walk along the coast path below Dunrobin Castle where a chance meeting directed us to the location of....

....a stranding which we'd heard about some time ago but hadn't found. The remains are in the foreground of the picture above, and they are of....

....a basking shark, perhaps four to five metres long, so camouflaged that we hadn't spotted it amongst the seaweed of the high-tide line. Since these sharks grow to a length of ten metres this is a juvenile which, we had heard, had come ashore at the same time as an adult which was found at Littleferry.

We've kayaked beside these magnificent, gentle creatures, which makes this sight seem terribly sad. There must be good reason for a double stranding: perhaps it's something to do with....

....these worm-like structures which may be parasites but may also be the 'gill rakers' which the fish uses to filter vast amounts of sea water to strain out the plankton on which it lives.