A comment from Ginny Jones about the Transat:

‘The thought that an Open 60’s keel cut a basking shark in half is truly tragic. They are the world’s most gentle sharks — you see them all along the west coast of Ireland and up in the Outer and Inner Hebrides, and the Scottish west coast. They are lazy, slow moving, and they just, well, they just bask on the surface. They are also endangered to a certain extent because they are so slow and lazy thus at risk from shipping. They are really interesting to see at sea, and pose little threat to anyone.

‘I really, really hope that it wasn’t a basking shark (and I’d be surprised if one was 40 feet) although I wouldn’t want it to be a whale or any other marine creature either.’

Well, I agree with that. Hitting any marine mammal is not something any sailor wants to do either, and I don’t mean for practical reasons, though that, too. But what to do?