308 Shark and Company 



its awesome might and potentially lethal attempts to shake off the men 

 who try to capture it. A mere 6-ton Basking shark weighs about as 

 much as two elephants or a dozen horses. When it leaps clear of the 

 surface and crashes down, its falling body may send up a splash as high 

 as, or higher than, a three-story house. 



One calm day off the west coast of Scotland, a yacht suddenly dis- 

 appeared in a great splash of spray. All that was found were odd pieces 

 of wreckage and the bodies of the crew. Everything was covered with 

 thick, foul-smelling slime. A marine biologist who examined the clues 

 to the mysterious disaster established that the black slime was identical 

 with the ooze that coats the thick hide of the Basking shark. 



The Basking shark's body is grayish-brown or nearly black above, 

 shading to a paler shade below, and its skin is studded with close-set, 

 thorn-like denticles. 



It is found in all temperate and boreal waters, centering west and 

 south of Iceland, along western Ireland, among the Hebrides, and off 

 southwestern Norway. In the Pacific, between November and February, 

 it ranges around Monterey and San Simeon Bays, California. It is also 

 known off Peru, Ecuador, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and China. 

 Cetorhinus ryiaxiTrms is generally believed to be the only species of 

 Basking shark. 



Family /i/(9pwWd!e— Thresher Sharks 



(Also Known as Fox Shark, Sea Fox, Swingletail, Thrasher, 

 Whip-Tailed Shark) 



A sea bird, injured or sick, is floundering on the surface. Suddenly, 

 out of the sea rises a sinuous scythe that slams down upon the bird, 

 killing it instantly. In the next moment, the sea bird is swallowed by the 

 wielder of the scythe— a Thresher shark (Alopias vulpinus Bonnaterre, 

 1788). 



The startling death of the sea bird was seen by reliable eyewitnesses 

 who have added this incident to the long list of accounts of how the 



Thresher shark {Alopias vulpinus). 



Courtesy, Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology 



