Basking shark

Cetorhinus maximus · The basking shark is the second-largest living fish, a slow, plankton-eating giant found in temperate oceans around the world.

Also called Bone shark.

Basking shark
Photo: Greg Skomal / NOAA Fisheries Service, Public domain
Basking shark
Photo: rossbeane, CC BY-SA 2.0
Basking shark
Photo: Public domain, Public domain

Taxonomy

KingdomAnimalia
PhylumChordata
ClassChondrichthyes
OrderLamniformes
FamilyCetorhinidae
GenusCetorhinus
SpeciesCetorhinus maximus

Where it lives

Cool temperate seas of both hemispheres, mostly over continental shelves.

Fun facts

  • A 5-metre basking shark can filter up to 500 short tons of water every hour just by swimming along with its mouth open.
  • Despite being huge and slow, a basking shark can breach, leaping entirely out of the water.
  • Tagged basking sharks off Cape Cod swam south across the equator all the way to Brazil, and one spent a month near the mouth of the Amazon River.
  • A basking shark's liver can make up 25% of its body weight and probably helps it stay buoyant and store energy.

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Facts and taxonomy adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).