Basking beauties

Cruising along with their huge mouths wide open, basking sharks are like giant mobile sieves filtering out countless tiny creatures on which they feed. This shark is the second largest fish in the world, after the whale sharks, growing to about 10 m ()33ft) long and weighing over 4 tonnes (3.9 tons). Basking sharks often swim at the surface on sunny days with their dorsal fins, and perhaps their snouts or tails out of the water. They are probably more attracted by a concentration of food at the surface than the delights of basking in the sunshine. Unfortunately, when the sharks are at the surface, they make easy targets for fishermen who harpoon them for the oil in their large livers which may be a quarter of their body weight. These sharks are also killed because of the damage they do to salmon nets. There is concern that too many are caught, as so little is know about their numbers, how far they travel, and how they reproduce.