Sharks and big fish along the Robin Hood's Bay coast

Ocassionally sharks enter the coastal waters around Scarborough. They cause a lot of fuss. Today reports of sharks can receive national coverage. In the 1920's they aroused the interest of newspapers.

One such case arose in 1928 when Oliver Storm,the coxwain of the Robin Hood's Bay Lifeboat, spotted a shark whilst in charge of a pleasure boat full of visitors with fishing lines. The shark was about 12-14 feet in length and was attracted by the number of herrings in the Bay at the time. Each time the shark circled it got closer. The confidence of the beast surprised Oliver Storm who had "never known a shark to be so bold".

This was one of a number of sighting of sharks that summer. The presence of the shark was probably due to the abundance of herrings and the fine wheather. Other sharks have actually been caught but these are usually smaller species. Huge basking sharks have been known off these shores. Two were even caught many years ago in Scarborough which were over twenty feet long. Dispite their size the basking shark is not dangerous to human beings.

SOURCE
- Scarborough Evening News, 28th July 1928

OTHER ARTICLES
• The fishermen and fisheries of Robin Hood's Bay in 1838
• Robin Hood's Bay - The Storm family website
• A sea shanty about a storm on the Scarborough coast
• The national RNLI and the Scarborough lifeboat of 1861.
• Tunny fishing in Scarborough in the 1930's
• The early years of the Scarborough Lifeboat
• The Yorkshire smuggler - the smuggling of contraband
• Famous fishing families - the Whitby Storr family and the Leadleys
• Shipbuilding at Scarborough - the wooden barques and schooners
• Primitive Methodism amongst the Scarborough Filey and Flamborough fishing communities
• The 200 year history of scarboroughs RNLI
• Children of the fishing families in Scarborough
• The port of Scarborough in the late 15th Century
• aThe coble boats of Filey Flamborough and Runswicks Bay
• Stories from Robin Hood's Bay and Whitby
• The coastline and cliffs of Robin Hood's Bay
• The origin of Robin Hood's Bay - its name
• The history of the Scarborough fishing industry
• Coastal erosion in the 19th Century around the North Bay and Scarborough Castle area

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