A basking shark as big as a small bus recently showed up off Ventura, spotted from a boat headed from Ventura to the Channel Islands National Park.
Basking sharks can grow up to 30-plus feet, making them the world’s second-largest fish, next to whale sharks. Known as the sea’s gentle giants, they swim with wide-open mouths when they forage. Instead of big teeth, their massive mouths act as filters, sorting small crustaceans and other fish.
Passengers and crew on an Island Packers boat watched as the roughly 20-foot shark swam nearby on March 3. The boat company that ferries people back and forth to the islands-based national park had left the Ventura Harbor, headed to Santa Cruz Island.
The boat stopped, and the shark swam up, its mouth open wide, before ducking underneath the vessel, said Andrea Mills, Island Packers’ education coordinator.
Local sightings of basking sharks that Mills described as “big and graceful” can be few and far between. There can be long stretches with no sightings, and Mills called their appearances a treat.
“I’m always awestruck, because they are so unique,” she said.
Researchers have tried to fill in the many blanks on what is known about the elusive fish. But there are still a lot of unknowns, officials say.
Basking shark numbers drop
The sharks once numbered in the thousands off California. But sightings of the eastern North Pacific population plummeted after the 1960s. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration classified the population as a species of concern in 2010.
It is unclear exactly why the shark’s numbers crashed or why sightings increased locally in spring 2019 before dropping again. The increase turned out to be more of a blip than a comeback for the massive fish, officials said.
Year-to-year changes in basking shark numbers are far from unusual. Even before sightings declined, scientists say reports suggested they would show up some years and not others.
Fishing the species is now prohibited in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. But in the mid-1900s, basking sharks were fished for their liver oil, fins and meat. They also were targeted by an eradication program in Canada. While the practice ended decades ago and the sharks garnered protection, the population failed to rebound.
Experts don’t know if the sharks moved elsewhere or if the numbers just remained low.
Olivia Cleek, a graduate student at Oregon State’s Big Fish Lab, has researched basking sharks for a year, tracking over a decade of reported sightings on social media and other platforms. That work could lead to future efforts for further study of the population.
The sharks are incredibly migratory, likely swimming long distances between Canada and Mexico, according to Cleek. That’s another reason why they can be challenging to study, because it is hard to say when and where they will show up, she said.
Based on her findings from recent years, sightings tend to be reported around this time of year, between February and summer months. The shark spotted recently likely made an appearance because of environmental conditions that led to more plankton in the coastal waters, she said.
Basking sharks tend to feed at the surface in coastal waters, mostly eating swarms of tiny plankton about the size of a grain of rice. Their gaping white mouths can create a sort of glow in the water.
Cheri Carlson covers the environment and county government for the Ventura County Star. Reach her at cheri.carlson@vcstar.com.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: A 20-foot shark, known as a gentle giant, shows up off Ventura
Reporting by Cheri Carlson, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
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