FEWER basking sharks were spotted in the

Westcountry during the summer months in the last two years – leading

marine wildlife experts to blame the poor weather.

The

SeaWatch SW survey team this year recorded 297 basking shark sightings

off Gwennap Head, near Land's End in Cornwall. But for the second year

in a row, few were seen in July and numbers peaked in September.

As

the second largest of the world's fish, after the whale shark, the

basking shark grows up to 30 feet long, and is usually a major

attraction for visitors to the Westcountry during the midsummer holiday

period. The typical pattern sees shark sightings peak between May and

July, and decline sharply after August.

Project

co-ordinator Dr Russell Wynn of the National Oceanography Centre,

Southampton, believes the change is related to shifts in the

distribution and abundance of the sharks' favourite food, tiny

planktonic shrimps called copepods.

Dr

Wynn said: "Copepods are normally concentrated at the surface in

coastal waters during late spring and summer. However, windy unsettled

weather during the last two summers has mixed up the surface waters,

preventing formation of dense plankton concentrations. This means the

sharks have gone elsewhere to find food or have stayed below the

surface."

Dr Wynn said: "The peak count of sharks seen off Gwennap Head was particularly late, with 26 seen on September 19.

"In the last two years, the weather has actually settled

down during September. This has encouraged a late plankton bloom, and

has seen sharks appearing again in good numbers during the autumn.

"From

a scientific point of view, we're now hoping next summer is a scorcher,

so that we can compare results with the previous two years."

The

SeaWatch SW survey involves volunteer observers recording marine

wildlife at a series of watch points around the Westcountry. The focal

point is Gwennap Head, which is monitored from dawn to dusk every day

between July 15 and October 15. The survey is due to run until at least

2011 to assess long-term wildlife trends.

In

addition to basking sharks, for the second successive year there were

more than 1,000 sightings of the Balearic shearwater, a globally

endangered seabird with a total population of just 2,500 breeding pairs.

The

survey team also recorded more minke whales, bottlenose dolphins, ocean

sunfish and puffins than in 2007, but fewer common dolphins and

kittiwakes.