Basking Sharks For Kids

Ask your mum or dad to take you on a real adventure.
Look for basking sharks off the Isle of Man! Look at these pictures
to see what you could see!

A real sea monster! LOOK at the size of that mouth. You could stand up inside the mouth of a big basking shark, not that you would want to! This basking shark is eating millions of tiny shrimp called plankton. It does not eat fish, jellyfish (or people)!

These are shrimp from the plankton. Each one is smaller than a rice grain, smaller than an 'o' on this page. Basking sharks have to eat MILLIONS of them every hour.

See. one basking shark eating plankton, not interested in people!

 

But your imagination could run a bit wild sometimes if you are silly enough to get close!

Sometimes you only see the basking shark's dorsal fin.

You might be lucky and see the nose, the dorsal fin AND the tail fin. This makes it easy to tell how big the basking shark is.

The big white mouth can be the first thing you see under the water. This basking shark has a floppy dorsal fin.

You can look for basking sharks from the shore. These sharks are close to Peel castle.

Some people are VERY lucky. They get to SWIM with basking sharks. This has to be done with GREAT CARE as you do not want to disturb their feeding. This is a very small, young basking shark.

Phew! That is a BIG fin! Sometimes you see people kayaking near to basking sharks off Niarbyl on the Isle of Man. They do not paddle when a basking shark is near because it might disturb it.

Basking sharks have little tiny eyes,

VERY BIG mouths,

and VERY BIG noses!.

They have beautiful skin.

But they have bad wrinkles around their mouths!

Don't mention the fish lice near their gills! Quick, call for the flea shampoo!

They 'fly' through the water using their big pectoral fins like aeroplane wings to steer.

They can look toothless and quite, quite, harmless ,

Their babies have cute little piggy noses-----------------but-------

Don't forget, they ARE sea monsters so keep looking and enjoy yourselves!

Really Revolting Basking Shark Facts

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 We hope that you will enjoy these revolting facts.
1: Basking sharks have long thin fish called lampreys stuck to their skin around their bottoms!
2: Basking sharks find their dinner by smelling and tasting the different fishy smells in the water. The huge basking shark eats millions and millions of tiny shrimp called plankton.  Imagine being a basking shark and having shrimp soup for every meal of your life! This great cartoon is by Derek Pitman, why don't YOU draw a cartoon of a basking shark?

 3: How would you like to have 10 big bristly brushes in your mouth! Basking shark gill slits have big brushes called gill rakers in them. These look just like a grandma's sweeping brush, only pink. They use these, covered in snotty mucous, to trap their food.
4: Basking sharks trap their shrimpy plankton dinner in GALLONS of slimy, snot-like mucous that they swallow with their food: GROSS!
5: Have YOU ever eaten too much? A big basking shark stomach is about the same size as a bath full of half-digested smelly pink shrimps.
6: If you were silly enough to touch a basking shark you would find that it is covered in slime a bit like the black oil on your bicycle chain! It smells fishy too!
7: When basking sharks rub against one another they leave a fishy smelling oily slick in the water!
8: Basking shark skin is very rough and scratchy because it is covered in MILLIONS of scales like tiny shark teeth! In the old days they used to make it into leather for non-slip boot soles. Those boots must have smelled very bad!
9: Basking sharks have fish lice around their gills! Fishy fleas but no flea shampoo or school nurse to stop their itches! They have to hope that birds or fish will pick the shrimpy fish lice off their skin.

Basking Shark Facts For Kids

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If you are lucky enough to see a basking shark please report it to us at THE MANX BASKING SHARK WATCH. If you write a really good short story about the day you saw a basking shark we would like to put it on our website.
1: Basking sharks are the second biggest fish IN THE WORLD! The biggest is the tropical whale shark.
The biggest basking shark ever was 13.72m long. This is longer than a bus!

 Cartoon by Derek Pitman 

2: An average size basking shark is 8.7m long. This is the same length as a small removals van. 3:It weighs 7 tonnes, the same as 2 elephants!
4: A newborn basking shark is 1.5-2 m long, that's bigger than a grown-up seal!
5: Basking sharks are born in litters of about 6 pups. A pregnant female must have a very big bump before she has her babies!
6: Basking shark brains are very small for such big animals. The main part of the basking shark brain is about the same size and shape as a hotdog in a bun! The most important bit of a basking sharks brain is two long thin stalks that look a bit like two dandelions on stalks. These bits work out the smell and taste of what is in their mouth.
7: Basking shark have very big dorsal fins on their backs. They are up to 2 m high, that is taller than your dad!
8: Basking sharks eat shrimps for dinner every meal of their lives. they have to filter LOTS of water to get enough to eat. An average-size basking shark could filter enough seawater to fill a swimming pool in just one hour!
9: Basking sharks visit the Isle of Man in the summer, between mid May and mid-August when the water is full of plankton.

When The Shark Jumps The Shark

Save the Sharks!

Hi everyone. Me and my friend want to let you know what are happening to the world wide animal known as the shark.This animal is getting extinct due to the sad thisngs we are doing. we are destroying this animal by deliberately trying to murder it, trap it, it getting caught in nets etc. Don't you want your grandchildren to see this magnificent animal? I know some of you think they are monsters but they are truly not! That is what movie makers such as "Jaws" (awesome movie though!)want you to think. I want to make a difference and help save sharks and i think you should join. Let me tell you in the other articles about sharks.                               Â

Well, lets first talk about these creatures. Sharks aren't as harmful as peoplesay they are. You are more likely to be strucken by lighting or hit by a car than get eaten by a shark. Sharks are just like other normal creatures, they are just blamed for their big teeth and their desire to eat. Shark's brains are the size of a peanut, so they don't know any better of what to eat. If you are boogy boarding, then they might think you are a seal. Those two things have a resemblence in a sharks eyes, since they are nearly blind. But sadly thanks too movie producers and other directors, people are starting too think that sharks are really like that by making these FAKE pictures:     These pictures ARE FAKE  but some people think they are real which they are not. Sharks are just animals with huge teeth and a bad reputation.  What some people are doing to sharks. *tear* Some people are doing terrible things to sharks. Some of the usual problems would be the litering of trash, bottles, soda caps, cans, etc. Also some of the fishermen use fish nets that sharks get caught in. they can choke and die with in the net or their dead body would flow off to shore. Here are some pictures:    Also some sharks are used for the fun of killing, eating, and skin care products. Though i dont reccomend this because sharks have mercury, they still eat it. Though they do that, some people don't fully eat it and just leave it there. That's wastes the whole point of killing the shark and is completely useless. Some others just kill sharks for fun or just think they are beasts. Here are some more pictures of how people kill sharks:   Sharks are misunderstood and also misinterpereted. They are normal animals with magestic ways. They are accused for killing in whicj they do by accident not on purpose. They are just great animals with a bad reputation.                   (Nothing against Dolphins, i just found this hilarious!! <3)

Now that I have told you somewhat about sharks, I would like like for you to help us. My friend and I have created this website to get your help! If you would like too,you can do everyday things such as not litering and spreading the word about sharks and how they are misunderstood. Or you could raise money to save the sharks. Me, kajol and my friend, lauren, are helping the sharks the best we can but we need your help too. You can raise money to help sharks or support us in our business to help sharks. We do face painting, make bracelets, make snow cones and much more! With your help we can save sharks and get it off the endangered species list!!!!        Sharks are great animals, there are over five-hundred species of them! But only three of them are deadly. The three deadly ones would be: the Bull shark, The great white shark, and the tiger shark. Here are pictures of each:   Great white, #1 deadly shark and the shark that mostly attacks humans.     Bull shark, #2 deadly shark because its one of the many sharks that can go into fresh water to attack.     Tiger Sharks, #3 deadly shark because its known to eat many things such as liscense plates, tires, cheese, etc. (lol i dont think they eat cheese...or do they?!)     Tell us about your shark encounters, personal thoughts, and any cool facts that kajol and lauren did not mention.   If you would like to contact us, go to the sidebar to the left of the screen.             For your information, this is not a TIGER shark!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!