A first shock is the word “shark”, and yes, far of being a great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) as it looks at a glance due to its size: this animal has nothing related with them. But unlike their fearsome relatives, the basking shark is a gentle giant that feasts exclusively on miniscule plankton.
A Filter-Feeding Leviathan
Basking shark: The basking is the second-largest fish in swimming under whale shark. This acts as an essential element of the marine food chain because due to its gigantic size and cheap grinding lifestyle, it is able to consume huge amounts of plankton. It is so specialized to plankton haunting that Leatherback’s mouth looks like a giant bucket with thousands of fine teeth ubiquitously covering its edge.
A Slow-Paced Lifestyle
The basking shark, being the weight that it is, would move pretty slow. Over the span of hours, it often will linger at the water surface with its large triangular dorsal fin above wave level. It is called as such because of the way it behaves.
A Vulnerable Species
However, the basking shark is an endangered species and it has some serious threats to deal with. Its numbers have fallen substantially in many areas due to overfishing, primarily for its finning and liver oil. They are also threatened by accidental entanglement in fishing gear, especially gillnets and longlines.
Conservation Efforts
They will take several actions to ensure the basking shark and other marine species are protected:
Marine Protected Areas: Identifying key areas and protecting them for the benefit of nature across a range of habitats to maintain fish stocks.
Sustainable Fisheries: Advocating for more sustainable fishing methods by following practices that do not catch other marine life and usage of less fish, in turn also protecting the ecosystems.
International cooperation: Ensuring the application of international agreements and regulations to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.
Public Awareness — Educating the public about marine conservation and shark threats.