Scientists are spying on basking sharks -- to see if they are using Scottish waters as a “courting” and mating ground.

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and the University of Exeter have attached camera tags to the protected sharks in a bid to discover more about their underwater behaviour.

Footage from the project, which launched earlier this month, has already revealed for the first time groups forming on the seabed, and the animals “being sociable”.

Now they hope to film the giant plankton eaters mating for the first time.

Basking sharks are the world’s second largest fish after the whale shark and reach up to 10m -- the length of a bus -- and up to seven tons in

weight. Despite their size and prevalence in Scotland’s seas, little is understood about their social behaviours.

Dr Suzanne Henderson, Policy and Advice Officer at SNH said: “A large number of sharks appear each year just off the western coast of Scotland in the Sea of the Hebrides.

“However, there’s been limited research to show exactly what they’re doing here. Do they come solely to feed on plankton, or are they courting each other and using our coast as a mating ground?

“There’s very little information about social and mating behaviours in basking sharks, or indeed sharks in general.

“We’ve been unsure whether the surface behaviours we see in the Sea of the Hebrides -- such as parallel swimming, following nose to tail, or swimming in tight circles -- are courtship activities.”

The researchers spent a week off the coast of Tobermory, on the Isle of Mull, in the Inner Hebrides, tagging three basking sharks.

For the first time on basking sharks, the project used towed camera tags -- where the camera tags trail slightly behind the attachment point at the

base of the main dorsal fin -- in an effort to gain new understanding of the sharks’ group behaviour.

Dr Matthew Witt, Senior Lecturer in Natural Environment at the University of Exeter, said: “The footage we’ve collected gives a fantastic shark’s eye view of the environment and new insight into behaviours.

“We can see sharks very closely aggregating near the seabed, potentially forming social groups.

“Three sharks are seen very close together, fins touching but hardly swimming. We haven’t seen basking sharks exhibit this behaviour at depth,

and early in the morning, before.”