The Black Bee is, or was, Britain’s native honey bee. All but wiped out on the mainland due to disease, the surviving black bee population is highly prized and protected on the Hebridean islands where they were introduced by Irish Monks over 1,000 years ago.
The Basking Shark is the second largest fish in the world. But, despite its size it is elusive and surprisingly little is known about its breeding or feeding habits.
Andrew Abrahams Black Bee Keeper
Andrew Abrahams is a master bee keeper who is dedicated to protecting the black bee population in the Hebrides. Innes Henderson is a fisherman who fishes for crab with his son Ross. They routinely see the Basking sharks feeding in the waters they sail and fish.
Dr Mauvis Gore has studied sharks across the globe, but basking sharks in Scotland had eluded her. Until the chance meeting in Tobermory with Innes Henderson.
Hebrides: Islands on the Edge with Ewan McGregor
For some animals, survival depends entirely on living on an island. Colonsay is warmed by offshore currents.
It’s so lush here that palm trees grow in the gardens of Colonsay house.
And this island is home to more than a third of all Britain’s flowering plants; an abundance of riches for the insects which pollinate them. Including one which is really special; Britain’s native honeybee. Andrew Abrahams is a master beekeeper.
Andrew Abrahams “The black bee as well adapted to island life, and probably West Coast life, you could say, in the sense that there always seemed to be feast or famine. I suppose the skill of living out on the islands is to adapt to that, and the bees pretty well do that.”
Andrew Abrahams
Black bees have lived on the mainland since the end of the last ice age… but they were brought to these islands by Irish monks more than 1,000 years ago. One of their priories still stands a neighbouring Oronsay.
Andrew Abrahams “For them the bees were very important for honey, mostly medicinal purposes, but also for beeswax.”
The monks used the beeswax to make candles, helping them read and write. So preserving knowledge through the Dark Ages.
But, in the early 1900s, Black bees on the mainland were virtually wiped out by disease. Continental bees were imported to replace them but they’re not as well adapted to our climate.
Andrew Abrahams “The black bee is suited to the hard weather… wet, cold winters, and often very wet, cold summers.
It has the ability to survive in difficult conditions. So, it is important the we conserve the genes of the black bee. And that’s what I’m to do here with the native bees that I’ve got.”
Andrew Abrahams is lobbying the Scottish government to turn Colonsay into a black bee reserve so no other kinds of bees and their diseases can be brought here.
Andrew Abrahams “We need to conserve the Black bees. We maybe don’t know why, we have no idea what the future holds… But scientists the world over are shouting the warning that we lose honeybees in general, but also genetic resources of honeybees, at our peril. We mustn’t lose that genetic resource.”
If Andrew Abrahams does managed to turn the these islands into a reserve it will give the black bees sanctuary, just as Oronsay once was for the monks.
Innes Henderson
While the Hebrides are refuges for some residents… they also attract some very impressive visitors. In the waters around his home on Coll, Innes Henderson fishes for crabs with his son, Ross. And in the summer they are not alone.
Innes Henderson “Well, we get quite a lot of visitors in the summer. The main one is the basking shark, which seem to be getting more and more every year, the most fantastic creatures that we know very little about.”
Shark oil was a valuable commodity. The hunting of Basking sharks was lucrative for many years. And, this caused their numbers to crash.
Basking sharks are now a protected species. And. the waters around Coll and Tiree are now among the best places to see these amazing creatures.
Innes Henderson “They feed on the surface with their noses up and, I mean, there’s quite often days where we are having to drive around them, there’s that many of them.”
Basking Shark Secrets
Basking sharks are the second largest fish in the world. But, even so, they’ve been slow to give up their secrets. Dr Mauvis Gore has studied sharks across the globe, but basking sharks in Scotland had eluded her. Until the chance meeting in Tobermory harbour changed everything.
Dr Mauvis Gore “We were waiting to fuel up and there was this fishing boat in the way, so I went over to talk to the fishermen, just asking them if he… I ask everybody if they’ve ever seen any basking sharks.
As Innes Henderson turns to me. He makes a casual remark ‘We’ve got hundreds of them on Coll’
I said, ‘What?”
Innes Henderson “She said, ‘That’s impossible’ and she came out the next day, and she saw 100 and I think it was a 130 that first day.”
It was a breakthrough for Dr Mauvis Gore. After years of looking, she could finally get to grips with these mysterious giants.
In the summer months, the sharks come to feed on the plankton in the rich Hebridean waters.
Mauvis Gore
Dr Mauvis Gore “You just see this black fin coming through the waters. And, often as not, they’ll come towards you, and they’ll be coming straight at you.
And it’s just, it’s just wonderful. They’re so calm and they’re beautiful, they move so smoothly through the water, so graceful and what they’re doing.
They’re just feeding most of the time and they seem to not mind you, so long as you don’t mind them. They are just wonderful animals.”
Since Mauvis first saw the sharks here, with Innes Henderson. She has returned every summer. Just like them. Mauvis Gore likes to monitor the shark migration. Because she has fitted them with tracking tags.
And one of her tags revealed something extraordinary just how far a basking shark can travel.
Dr Mauvis Gore “And this one had gone all the way across the Atlantic and ended up just off of Newfoundland. And, this was a real first for basking sharks.
Nobody had ever shown that they could actually do this. So this tag was absolutely fantastic, telling us that the sharks can cross the Atlantic. They had the energy and the drive and the need to do this.”
People used to imagine that when the sharks left our coasts they didn’t feed. But, instead wintered far below, in a sleep-like state.
Basking Sharks Population
However, as Mauvis Gore and other scientists discover more about their lives. It seems they travel, and feed continuously.
Perhaps basking shark populations all around the globe are connected. Sharks are in decline everywhere, but here in the Hebrides basking sharks seem to be doing well.
Mauvis Gore “I think people are beginning to appreciate just what wonderful animals they are and what an iconic species it is for Scotland.”
Innes Henderson “They are just amazing. They’re fantastic creatures.
Their mouths look so big that you could walk in without bending down. They are very graceful. Beautiful things to watch.
I really feel that it is a privilege to share their world. They’re far more powerful and probably see more of the world than I ever will.”
The sharks are a sign of how much food there is around these islands in summer. But the seas here used to be even richer. And they could be again, if we can bring our demands into balance with nature.
The scientific name for the basking shark is cetorhinus maximus.
While the basking shark is a rare visitor to the Hebrides, Chough and Corncrake are rare species on land.
External Links
Black Bee Population rediscovered in Britain - Guardian Article
Basking Shark Conservation being done by the Shark Trust
Hebrides - Islands on the Edge DVD - 2 Discs
Photographic Print of Cetorhinus maximus feeding on plankton, Hebrides
