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Cetorhinus maximus (Gunnerus, 1765)
BASKING SHARK
Bone Shark; Great Basker; Sunfish; Halsydrus maccoyi Barrett, 1933; Halsydrus maximus Gunner, 1765; Squalus gunnerianus Blainville, 1810; Tetroras maccoyi Barrett, 1933; Squalus maximus Gunnerus, 1765

Life   Vertebrata   Fish   Cetorhinidae   Cetorhinus



Cetorhinus maximus
© Copyright Photographer/SFTEP, 2002 · 0
Cetorhinus maximus

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Cetorhinus maximus
© Copyright Photographer/SFTEP, 2002 · 0
Cetorhinus maximus
Cetorhinus maximus
www.fao.org Copyright Michel Lamboeuf · 0
Cetorhinus maximus

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Overview
Main identification features Stout body; pointed snout; large mouth; 5 very long gill slits that extend onto the top and bottom of the body, all before the pectoral; long, hair like gill rakers; teeth numerous, minute, hooked; tail nearly symmetrical and half-moon shaped; tail base depressed, with long, strong keel; 2 dorsal fins, the first midway between the pectorals and pelvics.

Back blackish to grey-brown or blue-grey; belly a little paler.

Size: 1520 cm.

Habitat: near shore pelagic.

Depth: 0-570 m.

Circumglobal in temperate waters; enters the fringes of our region - Baja and the Gulf of California; the Galapagos, Ecuador and Peru.


Attributes

Abundance: Common.

Cites: Appendix II.

Climate Zone: North Temperate (Californian Province &/or Northern Gulf of California); Northern Subtropical (Cortez Province + Sinaloan Gap); Equatorial (Costa Rica to Ecuador + Galapagos, Clipperton, Cocos, Malpelo); South Temperate (Peruvian Province ); Antitropical (North and South temperate).

Depth Range Max: 570 m.

Depth Range Min: 0 m.

Diet: zooplankton; pelagic fish larvae; pelagic fish eggs.

Eastern Pacific Range: Northern limit=37; Southern limit=-47; Western limit=-122; Eastern limit=-70; Latitudinal range=84; Longitudinal range=52.

Egg Type: Live birth; No pelagic larva.

Feeding Group: Planktivore.

FishBase Habitat: Pelagic.

Global Endemism: Circumtropical ( Indian + Pacific + Atlantic Oceans); East Pacific + Atlantic (East +/or West); East Pacific + all Atlantic (East+West); TEP non-endemic; West + East Pacific (but not Central); "Transpacific" (East + Central &/or West Pacific); All species.

Habitat: Water column.

Inshore Offshore: Offshore; Offshore Only.

IUCN Red List: Vulnerable; Listed.

Length Max: 1520 cm.

Regional Endemism: Continent; Tropical Eastern Pacific (TEP) non-endemic; Eastern Pacific non-endemic; Continent only; California + Peruvian provinces, primarily; Temperate Eastern Pacific, primarily; All species.

Residency: Vagrant.

Salinity: Marine; Marine Only.

Water Column Position: Mid Water; Near Surface; Surface; Water column only;

Names
Scientific source:
Links to other sites


References
  • Béarez, P., 1996., Lista de los Peces Marinos del Ecuador Continental., Revista de Biologia Tropical, 44:731-741.
  • Compagno, L.J.V., 1999., Checklist of living elasmobranchs. In Hamlett W.C. (ed.) Sharks, skates, and rays: the biology of elasmobranch fishes., The John Hopkins University Press:471-498.
  • Compagno, L.J.V., 1984., Sharks of the World. An annotated and illustrated catalogue of sharks species known to date. Part 1. Hexanchiformes to Lamniformes. FAO Species Catalogue., FAO Fish. Synop. No 125, 4(1):1-249.
  • Eschmeyer , W. N. , Herald , E. S. and Hamman, H., 1983., A field guide to Pacific coast fishes of North America from the Gulf of Alaska to Baja California. Peterson Field Guide Ser. 28., Houghton Mifflin:336pp.
  • Findley, L.T., Hendrickx, M.E., Brusca, R.C., van der Heiden, A.M., Hastings, P.A., Torre, J., 2003., Diversidad de la Macrofauna Marina del Golfo de California, Mexico., CD-ROM versión 1.0. Projecto de la Macrofauna del Golfo .  Derechos reservados de los autores y Conservación Internacional.
  • Fischer , W. , Krup , F. , Schneider , W. , Sommer , C. , Carpenter , K. E. and Niem, V. H., 1995., Guia FAO para la Identificacion de Especies de para los fines de la Pesca. Pacifico Centro-Oriental. Volumen II. Vertebrados - Parte 1., FAO2:647-1200.
  • Gunnerus,., 1765., Brugden (Squalus maximus), Beskrvenen ved J. E. Gunnerus., Det Trondhiemske Selskabs Skerifter, 3:33-49.
  • Hildebrand, S.F., 1946., A descriptive catalog of the shore fishes of Peru., Bull. U.S. Nat. Mus., 189:1-530.
  • Jimenez-Prado, P., Béarez, P., 2004., Peces marinos del Ecuador continental / Marine fishes of continental Ecuador., SIMBIOE/NAZCA/IFEA tomo 1 y 2.
  • Love, M.S., Mecklenburg, C.W., Mecklenburg, T.A., Thorsteinson, L.K., 2005., es of the West Coast and Alaska: a checklist of North Pacific and Artic Ocena species from Baja California to the Alaska-Yukon border., U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, Biological Resources Division, 288pp.
  • Musick, J.A., Harbin, M.M., Berkeley, S.A., Burgess, G.H. Eklund, A.M., Findley, L., Gilmore, R.G., Golden, J.T., Ha, D.S., Huntsman, G.R., McGovern, J.C., Parker, S.J., Poss, S.G., Sala, E., & Schmidt, T.W., Sedberry, G.R., Weeks, H., Wright, S.G., 2000., Marine, estuarine, and diadromous fish stocks at risk of extinction in North America (exclusive of Pacific salmonids)., Fisheries, 25:6-30.
  • Sims, D. W., 1999., Threshold foraging behaviour of basking shark on zooplankton: life on an energetic knife-edge?., Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. (B), 266:1437-1443.


Acknowledgements

I thank Ashley MacDonald and John Pickering, University of Georgia, for technical support in building this page.


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