Common names
Mandelhai, Riesenhai, Colayo, Marrajo ballenato, Marrajo gigante, Peje vaca, Peregrino, Pez elefante, Tiburón canasta, Tiburón peregrino, Poisson à voiles, Pèlerin, Requin, Requin pèlerin, Squale géant, Squale pèlerin, Éléphant de mer, Basking shark, Basking tresher, Bone shark, Elephant shark, Hoe-mother, Shark, Sun-fish, Sunfish, Cagna, Can, Canisca, Imbestino, Mmistinu, Pesce elefante, Pesce pappagallo, Pisci sceccu, Squalo elefante, Squalo gigante, Squalo pellegrino, Squalo rostrato, Albafar, Cação-peregrino-argentino, Frade, Peixe frade, Peixe-carago, Peixe-frade, Peregrino, Relengueiro, Tubarâo-frade, Tubarão frade, Tubarão-peregrino, Gabdoll (malta)

Short Description
Distinguished from all other sharks by the enormous gill slits practically encircling the head; dermal denticle gill rakers; pointed snout; huge, sub terminal mouth with minute hooked teeth; caudal peduncle with strong lateral keels, and lunate caudal fin. Body covered with placoid scales. (Other sources of morphological data: Ref. 309, 5983).

Distribution
Cosmopolitan. Western Atlantic: Newfoundland, Canada to Florida, USA; southern Brazil to Argentina. Eastern Atlantic: Iceland, Norway and western Barents Sea to the Mediterranean and Senegal; also western Cape Province, South Africa. Western Pacific: Japan to New Zealand. Eastern Pacific: Gulf of Alaska to Chile; possibly the Galapagos Islands. Highly migratory species, Annex I of the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea [20076]. At risk of extinction by overfishing because of low to very low productivity (Ref. 36717). International trade restricted (CITES Appendix II, since 28.5.2003). Source: www.gbif.org

Human uses
fisheries: commercial

Biology
Exhibit ovoviparity (aplacental viviparity), with embryos feeding on other ova produced by the mother (oophagy) after the yolk sac is absorbed [733]. Gestation period probably just over one year; length at birth estimated between 1.5 and 2 m; mating thought to take place during early summer; a female giving birth to young captured in August in Norwegian waters (Ref. 5983). Distinct pairing with embrace [17086]. Often in close association with shoals of other fish such as Clupea harengus and Scomber scombrus in the Northern Atlantic [1940]. Possess long bristly gill rakers on long gill arches which facilitate filter feeding on plankton. The gill slits are correspondingly long, almost encircling the head region, and the mouth is large. Feeding is characterized by slow swimming at or near the surface, the direction of movement being erratic and without an obvious pattern. As the shark swims along the surface, its large mouth is held open for approximately 30 to 60 seconds. It periodically closes its mouth and forcefully constricts its gill arches, probably as a means to expel as much water from the buccal cavitiy [6577]. The discovery of basking sharks lacking functional gill rakers during autumn and winter in north-west European waters suggests a resting, non-feeding, demersal stage (Ref. 5967). It is suggested that hibernation in winter is possible because of the energy reserves in the large, oil-rich liver, which is lighter in spring than at the end of summer [4978].

Size / Weight / Age
900 cm TL (male/unsexed; [518]); 980 cm TL (female); max. published weight: 4,000.0 kg (Ref. 4645)

Habitat
pelagic-oceanic; oceanodromous [17660]; marine; depth range 0 - 2000 m [578], usually 0 - ? m (Ref. 55197)

Dentition


Links: SEM-images of teeth

Remarks
shark-references Species-ID=1347; CITES: (see: Protected Species for more details) Convention on International Trade in Endangered Speciesof Wild Fauna and Flora annex: II; Council Regulation 2017/160 annex: B; The neurocranium of Cetorhinus maximus (GUNNERUS, 1765) by Kunihiko Izawa and Terukazu Shibata

Parasites (arranged by Jürgen Pollerspöck)

• Petromyzon marinus Linnaeus, 1758 [8344]

Cestoda

• Cetorhinicola acanthocapax Beveridge & Campbell, 1988 [17838] [16112] [7398]
• Dinobothrium paciferum Sproston, 1948 [16250] [16250] [16129] [16311]
• Dinobothrium planum Linton, 1922 [16347] [16250] [16383]
• Dinobothrium plicatum Linton, 1922 [16250]
• Gastrolecithus planus (Linton, 1922) [16129] [16929]
• Reesium paciferum Sproston, 1948 [25154]

Trematoda

• Hyperandrotrema cetorhini Maillard & Ktari, 1978 [7849] [7400] [19641] [28146]

Nematoda

• Contracaecum plagiostomorum (Linstow, 1905) [17029]

Copepoda

• Anthosoma crassum (Abildgaard, 1794) [27825] [16609]
• Dinemoura producta (Müller, 1785) [3016] [27825] [16962] [16557] [16599] [16603] [16609]
• Lophoura edwardsi Kölliker, 1853 [16609]
• Nemesis lamna Risso, 1826 [16557] [16589] [16609]
• Nemesis lamna vermi Hewitt & Hine, 1972 [16602]

Isopoda

• Aegapheles antillensis (Schioedte & Meinert, 1879) [23898]

Actinopterygii

• Coelorinchus caelorhincus Risso, 1810 [16609]