Meet the Basking Shark!

Image : Oceana

Taking the runner up spot to the largest fish on earth (the whale shark) is, you guessed it, another shark! Meet the basking shark. Though intimidating in stature, and sometimes mistaken for white sharks from the surface, basking sharks are just as harmless as whale sharks. They, too, are filter feeders and spend most of their time at the surface feeding on plankton and other small species. The basking shark can reach up to 45 feet long and weigh over 10,000 pounds!

Fun Fact: Basking sharks live in temperate zones both north and south of the equator, but it believed that they are the same species. This has lead researchers to believe that they can swim between the two zones but at very deep depths!