Q 01/05

A 2018 study found that the slow, plankton-eating basking shark can leap from the sea as fast as which predator?

A) Porbeagle

B) Oceanic whitetip

C) Great white

D) Shortfin mako

Answer · why

C) Great white

Great white breaches are no faster: a tagged basking shark shot up from 28 metres with ten beats of its tail and left the sea at about 18 kilometres a...

Q 02/05

Reflecting its slow, passive lifestyle, the basking shark has the smallest what, weight for weight, of any shark?

A) Brain

B) Heart

C) Stomach

D) Eyes

Answer · why

A) Brain

Brain power matters little to a fish that feeds by cruising open-mouthed through clouds of plankton, with no prey to stalk, chase or outwit.

Q 03/05

A rotting basking shark hauled up by a Japanese trawler off New Zealand in 1977 was first hailed as which reptile?

A) Ichthyosaur

B) Plesiosaur

C) Mosasaur

D) Pterosaur

Answer · why

B) Plesiosaur

Plesiosaur fever swept Japan after the crew sketched the carcass and dumped it overboard. A decaying basking shark sheds its lower jaw early, leaving ...

Q 04/05

Which organ runs the length of a basking shark's body cavity, can reach a quarter of its weight and keeps it buoyant?

A) Its stomach

B) Its spleen

C) Its swim bladder

D) Its liver

Answer · why

D) Its liver

Its liver is packed with oil lighter than seawater, so the organ acts as a built-in float and doubles as a long-term energy store.

Q 05/05

In the 1950s Canada's fisheries department fitted a patrol boat with what to kill basking sharks off British Columbia?

A) A sharpened bow blade

B) An electrified drag net

C) A deck-mounted harpoon gun

D) A depth-charge launcher

Answer · why

A) A sharpened bow blade

A sharpened bow blade let the Comox Post slice through sharks that had been tangling in salmon nets, and it logged 413 kills in 14 years. The steel kn...