The basking shark is a coastal-pelagic species, found throughout the world's arctic and temperate waters. In the western Atlantic, it ranges from Newfoundland to Florida, and southern Brazil to Argentina. In the eastern Atlantic it ranges from Iceland and Norway to Senegal, including the parts of the Mediterranean. In the western Pacific, it is found off Japan, China and the Koreas as well as western and southern Australia and the coastlines of New Zealand. In the eastern Pacific, it is found from the Gulf of Alaska to the Gulf of California and from Ecuador to Chile.
Basking sharks are usually found travelling in pairs or groups of up to 100 or more, but are sometimes seen travelling alone. It is not fully understood why they have such a different behaviour to other shark species, as they seem to travel alone and in groups. They are highly migrational, and in the winter months they will be harder to find as they go to the deeper parts of the water to find food.
When they are seen swimming in circles, it is believed that this is to get the attention of females for mating. They may spend hours performing this, just in order to get noticed. They are usually very patient when it comes to attracting a mate.
Along with the Whale shark and the Megamouth shark, the basking shark is one of three species of large, filter-feeding sharks. However, the basking shark is the only one that relies on the flow of water through its pharynx by swimming. The basking shark is usually seen swimming with its mouth wide open, taking in a continuous flow of water. Food is strained from the water by gill rakers in the gill slits. The basking shark's gill rakers can strain up to 2000 tons of water per hour. These sharks feed along areas that contain high densities of large zooplankton (i.e., small crustaceans, invertebrate larvae, and fish eggs and larvae). There is a theory that the basking shark feeds on the surface when plankton is common, then sheds its gill rakers and hibernates in deeper water during winter. Also, it has been suggested that the basking shark turns to benthic (near bottom) feeding when it loses its gill rakers. It is not known how often it sheds these gill rakers or how quickly they are replaced.
Basking sharks are ovoviviparous, meaning that the young embryos develop in a yolk sac inside of the female, but they aren’t attached to a placental connection. It is believed that the females can delay gestation so that they may remain pregnant from 1 to 3 years. Mating occurs in the early summer and the females often move to very shallow water when ready for the young to be born. She may have up to 6 pups that are up to 6 feet long. The age of maturity is from 6 to 13 years. Basking sharks start mating when they are around 15 to 20 feet long.
Basking sharks are highly migratory. Off the Atlantic coast of North America, it appears in the southern part of its range (North Carolina to New York) in the spring, shifts northward (New England and Canada) in the summer, and disappears in autumn and winter. Off the southwest coast of the United Kingdom, in the northeast Atlantic, the basking shark feeds at the surface of coastal waters during the summer. These sharks are absent from November to March, suggesting a migration beyond the continental shelf during the winter months. This is explained by the high amount of zooplankton (the main food of the basking shark) that exists in these waters during late spring and early summer. During migration, basking sharks form groups depending on size and gender.
Many people have witnessed individual basking sharks leaping from the water. This behaviour is not fully understood, but some believe that the shark may be trying to get rid of parasites or commensals such as remoras and sea lampreys, which are often seen attached to the skin of the basking shark. The lamprey cannot cut through the denticle-armored skin, but they may be enough of an irritant to cause a reaction like jumping or rubbing against an object to get rid of them. The cookiecutter shark has also been known to attack basking sharks by using its suction cup-like lips and muscular pharynx to drill off pieces of flesh on the outside of the shark.
The basking shark has been hunted for its large liver, which has been sold in Japan, and has been burned and used in lamps by fishermen in the U.K, whilst the oil has been used in the manufacture of cosmetics. Due to the long amount of time it takes to mature, and the slow reproductive rate, the basking shark is vulnerable to over-fishing, and targeted populations are very slow to recover from targeted fisheries. Today the biggest threat comes from the demand for the fins for shark fin soup, and from accidental by-catches in the fishing industries. Although it is difficult to tell exactly, there has been a report that the population of basking sharks has decreased by 80% since 1950.
Chamber Taluka
Chamber Taluka is an administrative subdivision (taluka) of Tando Allahyar District in the Sindh province of Pakistan. The city of Chambar is the capital.
Fortress
A fortress is a building designed to be defended, which means it was very hard for enemies to get inside. Fortification kept the people inside safe. There is little difference between a fortress and a castle. Fortresses normally have thick stone walls, thicker but less tall than in castles so artillery cannot break them. There were very small windows, without glass, so that soldiers inside could fire out through them. As time passed, the weapons they used changed, from bow and arrow, crossbow, gun or cannon. Soldiers outside had great difficulty firing into such small windows. The people defending the fortress were also able to drop things like rocks and boiling oil on the heads of those below. Successful attacks were usually sieges.
Fortresses were not designed for comfort. They were dark and often damp. The Tower of London is an example of a fortress.
Malay alphabet
The modern Malay alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet. It is used to write Malay.
It contains the same letters as the English language alphabet. Q, V, and X are not used in native Malay words. The Malay alphabet contains 26 letters:
Diphthongs
Consonant combinations
Actual written examples of the Malay language:
Good day
Apa khabar
What is your name?
Siapa nama anda?
Do you speak Malay?
Bolehkah anda bercakap Bahasa Melayu?
Central Plaza
Central Plaza is a skyscraper in Hong Kong. It is 374 meters (1227 feet) tall and has 78 floors. It was built in 1992 and is one of the tallest buildings in the world
Fin whale
The fin whale ("Balaenoptera physalus") is a huge baleen whale. It is the second largest animal on Earth (the blue whale is the biggest). This whale is sometimes called the "greyhound of the sea" because of its fast swimming speed; it can swim up to 23 mph (37 km/hr) in short bursts. The fin whale is also called the finback, finner, razorback, common rorqual, and herring whale.
The fin whale is a streamlined whale that is found worldwide; it is most common in the North Atlantic. There are three separate populations of fin whales, one in the North Pacific, one in the North Atlantic, and one in the Southern Hemisphere; they do not interbreed. Many groups of fin whales migrate between feeding grounds and breeding grounds. This whale usually swims in pods of 3-7 whales but larger groups (up to 300 animals) may form at rich feeding grounds.
Fin whales are filter feeders that eat plankton (tiny crustaceans like krill and copepods) and small fish from the water. They have very fine grey-black baleen that traps very small particles of food. Each side of the upper jaw has 270-470 baleen plates.
James Skinner (soldier)
James Skinner CB (1778 – December 4, 1841) was an Anglo-Indian military adventurer in India.