Find a Fish
Basking Shark
Cetorhinus maximus (Gunnerus, 1765)
A Basking Shark feeding off Peel, Isle of Man.
A Basking Shark feeding. Note the pointed snout and long gill slits.
Teeth and gill rakers of a Basking Shark, (AMS I.31405-001). View larger image.
The Basking Shark is recognised by its large size, five long gill slits, two dissimilar sized dorsal fins, its lunate caudal fin and the single keel on each side of the caudal peduncle.
Despite growing to at least 10m in length, the Basking Shark feeds almost entirely on zooplankton. Basking Sharks swim with their huge mouths open and use the brush-like gill rakers to strain food from the water. The teeth are very small varying from triangular at the centre of the jaw to conical laterally. The bottom image shows the small teeth and large gill rakers of the 5m long Basking Shark specimen in the Australian Museum Fish Collection (AMS I.31405-001).
This species is found worldwide in temperate and cool oceanic waters. In Australia it is most common off the southern coastline but is recorded from Exmouth Gulf, Western Australia, around the temperate south and north to Port Stephens, New South Wales.
The underwater images show a Basking Shark off Peel, on the west coast of the Isle of Man. These images were taken while snorkeling, by K. Watterson, Chairperson of the Basking Shark Society.
Further reading
- Glover, C.J.M.in Gomon, M.F, Glover, C.J.M. & R.H. Kuiter (Eds). 1994. The Fishes of Australia's South Coast. State Print, Adelaide. Pp. 992.
- Last, P.R. & J.D. Stevens. 1994 Sharks and Rays of Australia. CSIRO. Pp. 513.
