Cetorhinus maximus (Gunnerus, 1765).

Basking Shark. Well documented to 12.2 m (40 ft) FL (Mecklenburg et al. 2018); reports to 15.2 m (50 ft) TL not verifiable but possibly not exaggerated (Bigelow and Schroeder 1953). Circumglobal in cold waters; Yellow Sea, Seas of Japan and Okhotsk, and western North Pacific Ocean to eastern North Pacific south of Aleutian Islands and in Gulf of Alaska to at least Punta Abreojos (26°42’N, 113°35’W), central Baja California (Mecklenburg et al. 2002). Records from further south and in Gulf of California are poorly documented (Sandoval-Castillo et al. 2006); Colombia to Chile (Ebert 2016). Coastal pelagic; depth: surface to 1,501 m (4,933 ft) (min.: Bigelow and Schroeder 1953; max.: Braun et al. 2018).