I have lived most of my 75 years near the sea at Tramore. On December 6th I saw a burst of sprats being chased by mackerel near the cliff. This is a frequent sight in summer, but never within months of this time of year. Locals caught some mackerel so they were identified. The area they covered was about the usual 500 square feet. For several days the weather had been exceptional, calm seas and plenty of sun. Another thing puzzles me. During my youth, every June, the basking sharks showed up and gave us a display for some weeks. Now we have not seen them for years. George Chapman, Tramore, Co Waterford
The arrival of mackerel in December is likely to be another sign of global warming. But the disappearance of the basking shark is probably due to over-fishing by Norwegian whalers who hunt them during the whaling off-season in summer. The plankton-eating basking sharks are fished for their livers which provide oil used in the manufacture of cosmetics and aircraft oil, and for their fins used in shark-fin soup. The EU has been setting arbitrary quotas for basking shark livers, without any knowledge or research on the status of the fish.