Massive shark found dead on beach had plastic in stomach

By Lauren Beavis

A massive basking shark washed up dead on a UK beach had plastic in its stomach, experts say.

The shark, which was more than four meters long, was found at Portgordon, near Buckie in Scotland.

It was first seen on Thursday, Oct. 30, last week, dead in the surf, by a member of the public.

The animal was reported to SMASS, the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme, who put out a call for their trained volunteers to attend.

Chris, one of those trained volunteers who also co-runs Shark and Skate Scotland, said: "Myself and Lauren, who I run SSS with, were attending a shark conference in Rotterdam (EEA -European Elasmobranch Conference) but were travelling home later that day, so volunteered to attend the shark on our return the next day (Saturday 1 Nov)."

The pair took samples and sent them to SMASS for processing.

Lauren, who co-runs SSS, explained how plastic is being increasingly discovered inside marine animals.

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She said: "Sadly plastic is certainly on the increase in terms of being found inside sharks, quite often microplastics, however, in large plankton feeders such as the Basking Shark larger pieces can often be found.

"The piece we saw was only a few centimeters."

Lauren, who published a paper describing the first account of microplastics being found in the digestive tract of catsharks caught in the North Sea (landed in Fraserburgh) several years ago, added: "Unfortunately, as a whole plastic (plus chemicals leaching out of them) is being found throughout all ecosystems."

A global threat to sharks is overfishing, but localized threats to their survival include habitat loss and various forms of pollution.

Chris explained how basking sharks have been seen regularly in the west coast of Scotland in the past decades and less frequently in the east coast.

He said: "However, in the past few years, they seem to have chosen to gather on the East Coast, with high numbers spotted in one area - 60 plus - in one instance off Nairn.

"We are not sure what has caused this apparent shift in preferential grounds, but feeding or reproduction are possible drivers for changes in behavior."