Snorkelling with Basking Sharks

Charles Hood · Issue 57, Nov/Dec 2010 · pp. 69–72

Products mentioned: Nikon D3, Nikkor 20mm f2.8, Tokina 10-17mm, Nikkor 16mm

The filter feeding Cetorhinus maximus or to give it its common name the basking shark is the second largest fish in all of the worlds oceans, narrowly beaten by the whale shark Rhincodon typus. However, lengthwise there is very little in it. Apparently the largest recorded basking shark was found in a herring net in the Bay of Fundy, Canada in 1851 and measured a whopping 12.27 metres. Compare this with the largest confirmed whale shark that was caught near Baba Island, Karachi, Pakistan on November 11, 1947 which at 12.65 metres is less than half a metre longer. So to all intense and purposes they are similar in length and are both very big fish. The main difference, however, is I can relatively easily swim with basking sharks as they congregate, sometimes in vast numbers, less than 10 miles from my home in south west Cornwall, England, whereas to see a whale shark I have to travel thou…