Animals / basking-shark-feeding-behavior
Facts about Basking Shark Feeding Behavior
- 05
Congregations of basking sharks feeding at the surface are often observed in areas where tidal fronts concentrate zooplankton into dense patches.
- 04
A basking shark feeding at the surface can filter-feed through enormous volumes of water by swimming slowly, typically at speeds of around 2 knots.
- 03
The gill rakers of a basking shark, which strain plankton from the water, are shed and regrown seasonally.
- 02
During autumn and winter, basking sharks often disappear from surface waters and are thought to feed at depth on deep-water plankton aggregations.
- 01
Basking shark feeding behavior involves passive filter feeding, with the shark swimming open-mouthed to strain zooplankton from thousands of liters of water per hour.