The basking shark Cetorhinus maximus: movement, behaviour and connectivity in the Northeast Atlantic

This study focused on a seasonal ‘hotspot’ for basking sharks at Malin Head, Ireland. In Chapter 2 we used data collected by time depth recorders deployed on basking sharks (N=13; total 466.5 hours) to develop a two state (diving - surfacing) Semi-Markov model that predicts the frequency and duration of basking shark surfacing events using solar radiation or wind speed alone.

This approach will address availability bias in population census data. In Chapter 3 we explored the physiology and evolutionary history of basking sharks through the comparative study of breaching events captured using animal borne triaxial accelerometer, depth and video data (CATSCAM) with video data remotely captured from the shore (N=20). In Chapter 4 we used Pop-off archival transmitters with Fastloc GPS (Wildlife Computers) (n=4) to consider how patterns of depth utilisation during autumnal dispersal from hotspots, might shape the basking shark’s realised thermal environment.