Phenomenal Whale Sightings
Hundreds of basking sharks have been spotted around the Land's End
peninsula this week. Rory Goodall and Paul Semmens, of Elemental Tours,
which runs marine wildlife watching trips, said they, along with
observers on shore, had seen 160 of the vast creatures on Tuesday.
And on Wednesday, this figure had jumped to a massive 460 which had
been observed by lunchtime.
Mr Goodall told The Cornishman: "This is quite phenomenal.
"I've spoken to Roy Dennis, who collates the sightings for organisations such as the Cornwall Wildlife Trust and the Marine
Conservation Society, and he says this would be a record for sightings
in Cornwall, beating the 300 or so seen off The Lizard a few years ago."
Mr Goodall puts the large numbers down to the vagaries of the 2007 summer.
"The numbers of sharks seem to coincide with spells of good weather.
"Most of the time there have been cold northerly winds but when you
get a spell of good weather as we are in at the moment, the numbers
seem to pick up."
This is Cornwall: September 2007
