Shark researchers from Donegal are understood to have pulled off a world first after fitting a camera to the dorsal fin of a giant basking shark.
A basking shark off Inishowen
The camera was deployed by a team from the Irish Basking Shark Project on the dorsal fin of a six-metre basking shark, just south of Malin Head.
It was recovered via a mini VHF directional finder 25 hours later about five miles west of the initial deployment site.
Emmett Johnston, a spokesman for the team based in Inishowen, said they are delighted by the footage they recovered.
Mr Johnston said the recent good spell of weather has brought large numbers of sharks off the coast of Donegal.
“We got about 3 hours of footage, plus body acceleration, roll and movement data which we are correlating with the video footage.
“We haven’t seen sharks in such good numbers since 2010. The good weather has brought the sharks to the surface for longer periods and created suitable conditions for large aggregations to form.
“The sharks are gathering in the many small bays and inlets on the north coast to feed on the dense clouds of plankton, literally yards from the shore line.”