The basking shark, Cetorhinus maximus, is the second largest fish, after the whale shark. The basking shark is a cosmopolitan species - it is found in all the world's temperate oceans, it is a slow moving and generally harmless filter feeder.Like other large sharks, basking sharks are at risk of extinction due to a combination of low resilience and overfishing through increasing demands for the sharks' fins, flesh and organs.
