Baskers notable by their absence

The reduced sightings can be explained by inclement weather and colder water temperatures, say experts.

The conditions have meant that there has been little reason for these deep-water, migratory animals to move inshore in search of food.

The colder and more disturbed conditions have meant that plankton blooms, which draw the creatures in, have not been able to form in the concentrations usually associated with visits of large schools of basking sharks.

"It is quite difficult to get a handle on population numbers with these large migratory beasts but we doubt that the numbers have crashed," marine biologist Jean-Luc Solandt of the Marine Conservation Society told local press.

According to researchers at the Cornwall Wildlife Trust, the same has applied this year in waters off the Isle of Man and Scotland’s Hebrides.

By contrast, observers in Ireland have reported more normal levels of plankton blooms and, correspondingly, visits by basking sharks to hoover them up.