Tracking UK basking sharks with a teledyne RESON SeaBat 7128: Basking in the dark

Recent hydrographic advances are revolutionising the way the marine environment can be accessed, scanned and quantified. With the emergence of sonar technology and, more recently, remotely or autonomous operating vehicles equipped with sonar, underwater cameras or photogrammetry, almost all aspects and species within our vast oceans can now be visualised. This is also becoming reality for even the most elusive marine animals. Here, we describe our quest to track basking sharks, Cetorhinus maximus, using multibeam sonar, thereby advancing the way we can observe and protect the UK's largest shark.