Basking shark

About this species

The whale shark is a slow-moving, filter-feeding carpet shark and the largest known extant fish species. An individual with a length of 18.8 m (61.7 ft) has been considered the largest reliably recorded. The whale shark holds many records for size in the animal kingdom, most notably being by far the largest living non-cetacean animal. It is the only living species of the genus Rhincodon and the only extant member of the family Rhincodontidae, which belongs to the subclass Elasmobranchii in the class Chondrichthyes. Before 1984, it was classified as Rhiniodon into Rhinodontidae. An extinct species, Rhincodon ferriolensis, was described in Europe, in the Late Burdigalian stage.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Whale shark”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 1,085 records
February: 525 records
March: 467 records
April: 353 records
May: 313 records
June: 338 records
July: 848 records
August: 956 records
September: 971 records
October: 949 records
November: 958 records
December: 1,172 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 0–30 m · Deepest record: 384 m

0–10 m: 2,461 records
10–20 m: 125 records
20–30 m: 183 records
30–40 m: 119 records
40–50 m: 0 records
50–60 m: 62 records
60–70 m: 33 records
70–80 m: 34 records
80–90 m: 78 records
90–100 m: 0 records
100–110 m: 0 records
110+ m: 3 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 16–30 °C

14–16 °C: 1 records
16–18 °C: 2 records
18–20 °C: 0 records
20–22 °C: 34 records
22–24 °C: 15 records
24–26 °C: 110 records
26–28 °C: 195 records
28–30 °C: 19 records

Photos

(c) Shaunak Modi, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Daniel Benák, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) José Francisco Colorado-Dapa, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Paulmathi Vinod, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Dan Schofield, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Michael Bear, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Basking shark, East Indian basking shark, Whale shark, basking shark, Checkerboard Shark, Tofu shark, whale shark, Whale Shark

Names in 9 more languages

German: Rauhai, Walhai
Spanish: dámero, dominó, Pez dama, tiburón ballena, tiburón dama, Tiburón dominó
Filipino: isdang tuku, Isdantuko, tuk, tuki tuki, Tuko, tuku
French: chagrin, requin baleine, Requin baleine, Requin-baleine
Indonesian: Hiu paus
Japanese: jimbeizame, Jimbezame, Jinbeizame, yasurizame, ジンベエザメ, ミズサバ
Korean: 고래상어
Thai: chlarm plawarn, ปลาฉลามวาฬ
Simplified Chinese: tofu sa, 豆腐鯊

Other scientific names: Micristodus punctatus, Rhicodon typus, Rhineodon typus, Rhiniodon typus, Rhinodon pentalineatus, Rhinodon typicus

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
13,428 open-data records from 1828 to 2025.
Species data updated October 26, 2026.