The Basking Shark, also known as the Elephant Shark, is the only member of the family Cetorhinidae, and is the world's second largest fish species. It has an elongate, spindle-shaped body and reaches lengths up to 14 m in length. Gill slits are very large and it has numerous, hook-like small teeth. It is a slow-moving, plankton-feeding species that is highly migratory and seasonally abundant in cool coastal temperate waters during summer plankton blooms, and that disappears in winter (Martin and Harvey-Clark 2004). These authors indicate that it may exhibit "subtropical submergence, remaining in deep water at low latitudes...[and] may be primarily mesopelagic, appearing in surface waters when conditions are favourable". COSEWIC (2007) indicates that it is often found in areas of zooplankton concentration, including "fronts off headlands, around islands and in bays with strong fluctuations of water masses from tidal flow".
This species was designated as endangered in Canada by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife (COSEWIC 2007). It was once numerous in BC but populations declined as a result of hunting in the 1950's and 1960's for liver oil, and focused eradication by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (COSEWIC 2007). Large numbers were once regularly found in three areas in BC ( Rivers Inlet (Queen Charlotte Sound), Clayoquot Sound, and Barkeley Sound) while smaller number were observed historically in the Strait of Georgia and off the southern banks of Vancouver Island (COSEWIC 2007). Numbers have declined by more than 90% from historical levels and it is now seen only sporadically in BC waters (COSEWIC 2007). There have been recent sightings.
The Pacific Wildlife Foundation provides the following information: "Two PWLF Directors Jim Darling and Kate Keogh identified 27 individuals in Clayquot Sound in June, July and August 1992 but by 1994, the sharks were gone (Darling and Keogh 1994). There was a sighting from BC waters in the Queen Charlottes Islands in July 2005 (Wallace and Gisborne 2006) and in Nootka Sound in June 2009." Between 1996 and 2007 there were only 6 confirmed sightings (COSEWIC 2007). The Vancouver Sun reports eight sightings of Basking Sharks in 2013, between April and September. Read the article here.
Report Basking Shark sightings to 1 877 50-SHARK (1-877-507-4275). Visit the BC Shark and Skate reports blog.
