After the Whale shark, the Basking shark is recorded as the second largest species of sharks living in the ocean waters. The shark species including Basking sharks are widely distributed and travel long distances throughout the ocean in the food search. How big can Basking sharks grow which makes them the second largest predatory animal in the shark’s realm? Nobody knows the accurate answer. Don’t worry we will help you out to find the answer! Let’s begin the analysis to study more about the morphology of Basking sharks.
Where Basking Sharks Are Distributed in the World?
Basking sharks prefer warm and temperate water of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. They are also spotted in the open water of the Northern Gulf of Mexico and the UK waters. The sharks exhibit migratory response seasonally, during the winter season they thrive deep in the ocean water whereas, in the summer and spring season, the sharks are often found swimming near the shoreline in the search of food.
What Do Basking Sharks Look Like?
The giant shark’s species have a huge and bulky body, they are blackish to bluish from the upper side and are pale whitish from the underside of their belly. The sharks have extremely wide mouths (4 feet wide) and sturdy jaws with multiple rows of small teeth. They possess black-colored, triangular-shaped dorsal fins on the back which help them to swim through the water waves. They have long gills which surround their large head, the gills have hundreds of gills rakers which provides sharks with the food extracted from the flowing water.
What Do Basking Sharks Look Like?
The adult basking shark can grow to an average length of 30 feet or 9.1 meters. However, the young babies of basking sharks when born have an average length of 5 to 6.5 feet or 1.5 to 2 meters which are equal to the length of an adult Gray Reef shark. Furthermore, in 1851, basking sharks were spotted in the Bay of Fundy, Canada can have a maximum length of 40 feet or 12.3 meters. But the largest shark species of basking sharks ever recorded can grow to a length of 61.7 feet or 18 meters.
What Is the Weight of Basking Sharks?
The Basking shark – the second largest predatory creature of the ocean water can have an average weight of 10,260 pounds which is equal to 5 White sharks put together. Well, this is the weight of an adult Basking shark – you will be amazed when you know the weight of the largest species of Basking sharks. Interestingly, the largest species of basking sharks ever recorded can weigh more than 36,000 pounds which is equivalent to the weight of 7 species of largest White sharks.
Final Words
The black to bluish-colored Basking sharks are the second largest species of the open waters. Basking sharks have extremely huge and bulky bodies which can grow to a maximum length of 30 feet or 9.1 meters and weigh 10,260 pounds. However, the largest basking sharks ever recorded can reach a length of 61.7 feet or 18 meters with a weight of 36, 000 pounds. That’s all about basking sharks, we hope you enjoyed this article and helped you to learn something new!