The naturalist Gavin Maxwell is best known for his work with otters, and as author of Ring of Bright Water, but he also tried to set up a basking shark fishery on the Island of Soay off the coast of Skye in the late 1940s, leading to a serious drop in the numbers of these animals in the surrounding seas, from which they are only beginning to recover. The unsuccessful venture is described in his book Harpoon at a Venture (1952). Different times. Continue reading Basking shark fishery on Soay →