Basking Shark: Description, Types, Pictures, & Fun Facts

Basking Shark: All You Need To Know

The Basking shark (Cetorhinus Maximus) is an omnivorous fish belonging to the Animalia family, phylum Chordata, class Chondrichthyes, order Lamniformes, and family Cetorhinidae. Cetorhinus is its genus. It is 6 to 12 m in length and weighs up to 8,500 pounds, with a lifetime of up to 20 to 100 years.

The basking shark is thought to be the world’s second largest fish, feeding on fish, planktons, and invertebrates. Enormous mouth and a large body size are the most distinguishing characteristics.

Basking sharks are preyed upon by humans, sharks and killer whales. Black, grey, and brown colours, as well as smooth on the skin, are physical characteristics.

Although basking sharks, sometimes known as bone sharks, have a fearsome look and a gigantic size that may easily intimidate surrounding swimmers or divers, they are largely safe for people and aquatic creatures.

These sharks, like whales, filter vast amounts of ocean water through their mouths to feed on plankton and other tiny life forms. As they gather food, they cruise or even float over the surface with their lips hanging wide.

They are the second-largest shark species known, and one of only three shark species that feed on plankton.

4 Incredible Basking Shark Facts!

1. Filtration experts: These sharks can filter hundreds of gallons of water per hour because of their gigantic size and wide mouth.

2. Mouth agape: These sharks are known for swimming with their enormous mouths hanging open, which may be terrifying to inexperienced divers.

3. Sluggish breeders: These sharks are notoriously slow to reproduce, taking up to three years from conception to birth.

4. Basking sharks, unlike other sharks, are known to leap entirely out of the water, similar to whales.

Basking Shark Classification and Scientific Name

These gigantic animals are also known as bone sharks or elephant sharks, in addition to the moniker basking shark, which they obtained due to their habit of floating softly along the ocean’s surface. Cetorhinus maximus is their scientific name.

The name Cetorhinus comes from the Greek terms for “sea monster” and “nose,” while maximus means “biggest” or “largest.” As a result, the Basking Shark is one of the world’s largest fish. The Cetorhinidae family of the Chondrichthyes class includes the species.

Basking Shark Appearance

Because of its large size and distinctive traits, this shark species is one of the easiest to identify just by looking at it. The average adult shark may reach lengths of up to 26 feet from nose to tail, with some reaching lengths of over 40 feet. Their massive stature is matched by their massive bulk, which averages over 8,500 pounds.

Their skin might be speckled or pallid, and their colour can range from a lighter brownish grey to practically black. Basking sharks have distinctive gills that almost completely wrap their bodies.

Gill rakers, filament-like growths along the gills that collect plankton from the water passing through the slits, are found on their gills. While their other morphological characteristics are similar to those of other big shark species, such as the great white, they have a crescent-shaped tail fin that distinguishes them from their predatory cousins.

As they swim or float with the current, these sharks often leave their large mouth open wide to optimise water intake. They have dozens of rows of small hooked teeth in their jaws, which can number in the thousands.

Although they may totally break the surface of the water and engage in more vigorous swimming when threatened, their movements and eating are largely passive.

Basking Shark Distribution, Population, and Habitat

The basking shark has a huge geographic range that spreads across wide swaths of the Pacific and Atlantic seas. Because they prefer cool to moderate settings, they do not live in the Arctic, Antarctica, or tropical areas. During their extensive migratory routes, which can span thousands of kilometres, they may cross through tropical seas.

They may be found along the west coasts of North and South America, as well as most of Europe, Australia, and South Africa. Although exact population numbers are unknown and can only be guessed based on location, environmentalists consider the species to be endangered.

Atlantic Canada, which is one of its primary feeding sites, is believed to have 10,000 individuals. Commercial fishing targeting as late as the 1950s resulted in a global population reduction that has yet to recover.

The combination of their sluggish maturation process and long gestation time, as well as the frequency of human contacts, is a major cause of population reduction.

Basking Shark Predators and Prey

They are essentially impervious to natural predators because of their gigantic size, yet they are particularly vulnerable to people. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, their simple availability on the water’s surface, docile character, and large historical population made them an enticing target for fishermen.

Sea lampreys and cookie-cutter sharks are parasites that these sharks are vulnerable to. Basking sharks have evolved to eat marine zooplankton, which is made up of a variety of minute creatures and larvae that dwell in seawater.

They are often found in greater numbers towards the surface, where sunshine is plentiful, or near the bottom of the substrate, where there is less sunlight. Sharks rely on currents and their sluggish swimming motion to drive water into their mouths and gills so they may grab their prey, periodically shutting their mouths to eat large amounts of captured prey.

Read ‘What Do Basking Sharks Eat: Their Nutrition Explained’ for an in-depth look at the basking shark’s diet. Because of their large depth range and strong migratory ability, the overall population numbers for this species are unknown.

However, scientists have reported fewer sightings in many natural environments, and the species is now classified as endangered and in grave danger of extinction. Long-term viability is threatened by the shark’s delayed maturation and reproduction rate, as well as its vulnerability to purposeful and incidental fishing.

Basking Shark Reproduction and Lifespan

When basking sharks are ready to breed, which happens between May and July, they normally travel into shallower coastal waters. During a single mating season, individuals may have many partners.

Researchers have seen elaborate courting and mating rituals between adult sharks from the air and on the ground. The ceremony might include a combination of synchronised swimming, biting, and nudging. In the wild, basking sharks can live for more than 30 years, and some scientists say they may survive for up to 50 years.

Females, on the other hand, require 12 to 16 years to grow to the point where they can spawn. While there are few observations and specimens of this species’ reproduction, experts assume they have a gestation period of roughly 3 years and give birth to litters of around 6 pups.

Basking Shark in Fishing and Cooking

Basking sharks were formerly a valuable supply of raw meat and fishmeal, as well as leather made from their skin and oil derived from their liver. Some modern fisheries continue to target them for their fins, which are a vital element in shark fin soup, and for different interior organs that are revered in traditional Asian medicine. However, because of a significant continuous population loss, many governments have implemented a fishing prohibition.