The basking shark, Cetorhinus maximus, is a very large coastal and semioceanic shark found in cold and temperate waters worldwide. They feed largely on zooplankton by swimming with their mouths opened wide and filtering water with their gill rakers. They can often be observed very close to shore and at the surface feeding. In the western North Atlantic, the basking shark is most abundant in spring and summer and disappears in autumn. Where the sharks go is unknown, but it is thought that they move to colder deeper waters offshore.
Sabine Wintner of the Natal Sharks Board in South Africa has undertaken a project to age basking sharks using vertebral samples obtained from researchers around the world. Individual researchers do not have either the sample size, or size range to accomplish this without combining forces. The NMFS APP is contributing 8 samples towards this effort. Vertebrae are being x-rayed by scientists at George Burgess's laboratory at the University of Florida and the resulting x-rays are being forwarded to Sabine for analysis.
Contact Information:
Sabine Wintner
Wintner@shark.co.za
Lisa Natanson, Ph.D.
Lisa.Natanson@noaa.gov