Wednesday, 16 February 2011

History Basking Shark

When I paddle around the coastline of an area I like to find out about part of its history the good and bad periods, the people, wildlife and how the area was formed in geological terms.

When paddling a few weeks ago on Skye from the small village of Elgol out to the Island of Soay, I had a brief knowledge of the history of Soay and Gavin Maxwell and his enterprise of hunting Basking Sharks. I did a little research after that trip to find out more about his exploits on the west coast of Skye, I found  a couple of interesting books that if you are interested they a well worth the read.

The first book is by Gavin Maxwell  titled "Harpoon At a Venture"  charting the beginings of his enerprise shark fishery on Soay and the developments of catching and the equipment.

The second book by Denis Fairfax titled  "The Basking Shark in Scotland "  covers a full history of the fishery of the shark. including anatomical and biological references to the shark.  
  

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