The basking shark is also called the sunfish, the bone shark, the elephant shark, the sailfish shark, and the big mouth shark. Basking sharks are not aggressive and are generally harmless to people.
Basking sharks live in coastal temperate waters.
This huge, bulky, filter-feeder has a huge mouth which it uses to collect tiny food that floats in the water. It is a sluggish swimmer with huge gills and dark, bristle-like gill rakers that filter its food from the water. The snout is short and conical. Basking sharks are filter feeders that sieve small animals from the water. As a basking shark swims with its mouth open, masses of water filled with prey flow through its mouth.