Cetorhinus maximus (Gunnerus, 1765)

Cetorhinus maximus (Gunnerus, 1765) View in CoL .

Basking Shark. Well documented to 12.2 m ( 40 ft) FL ( Mecklenburg et al. 2018); reports to 15.2 m ( 50 ft) TL not verifiable but possibly not exaggerated ( Bigelow and Schroeder 1953). Circumglobal in cold waters; Yellow Sea, Seas of Japan and Okhotsk, and western North Pacific Ocean to eastern North Pacific south of Aleutian Islands and in Gulf of Alaska to at least Punta Abreojos ( 26°42’N, 113°35’W), central Baja California (Mecklenburg et al. 2002). Records from further south and in Gulf of California are poorly documented ( Sandoval-Castillo et al. 2006); Colombia to Chile ( Ebert 2016). Coastal pelagic; depth: surface to 1,501 m ( 4,933 ft) (min.: Bigelow and Schroeder 1953; max.: Braun et al. 2018).