Basking shark
Cetorhinus maximus
The basking shark is the second-largest living shark and fish, after the whale shark. It is one of three plankton-eating shark species, along with the whale shark and megamouth shark.
Basking sharks have been fished for the flesh (food and fishmeal), the hide for leather, and the large oil-rich liver. Today they're mainly taken for their fins for shark fin soup.
Basking sharks live worldwide in temperate oceans around continental shelves and prefer water of about 8 to 14.5 C, though they'll cross the equator. Satellite tagging has tracked them moving thousands of kilometers between summer and winter, following the richest patches of zooplankton. They feed by swimming with the mouth open and filtering plankton from the water.
Also known as
- bone shark
- elephant shark
- sailfish
- sunfish
Basking shark in foreign languages
| Scientific | Cetorhinus maximus |
| Hebrew | כריש ענק |
| Arabic | قرش متشمس |
| Spanish | Peregrino |
| Portuguese | Tubarão-peregrino |
| French | Pelerin |
| Italian | Cetorinidi |
| German | Riesenhai |
| Greek | Καρχαρίας προσκυνητής |
| Russian | Гигантская акула |
| Turkish | Büyük camgöz |
| Chinese | 象鯊 |
| Japanese | ウバザメ |
| Korean | 돌묵상어 |
| Vietnamese | Cá nhám phơi nắng |
| Thai | ปลาฉลามอาบแดด |
Gallery
- Has fins but no true scales, only tooth-like placoid denticles, so it is not kosher.
- Listed as Endangered by the IUCN, with fishing banned in EU waters and full protection in the UK and US Atlantic and Gulf regions.