Basking Sharks (Cetorhinus maximus) Return to Monterey Bay

Observation by Tom Okey: In February of 1990, I observed a Basking Shark (Cetorhinus maximus) fin over the shallow head of the Monterey Submarine Canyon while standing on the end of the old Moss Landing whaling pier, which was directly west of the Sandholt Road bridge, and has since been removed. I observed this Basking Shark on a sunny and very calm day with glassy waters and virtually no beach waves at around 9 am just before an invertebrate zoology lecture by Professor James Nybakken at the "temporary shore lab", which was a triple-wide trailer building that housed the Benthic Ecology lab and a classroom after the original Moss Landing Marine Laboratories complex was destroyed in the Loma Prieta earthquake. I alerted our class, which came out to observe the Basking Shark cruising back and forth over the shallow canyon head. The lone individual then slowly cruised west toward more open water over the deeper part of the Monterey Submarine Canyon.

After the class, some fellow students and I took a 21' Boston Whaler boat out to find the Basking Shark. We found several individuals about 1 km from the shore over the Monterey Submarine Canyon grazing on plankton by cruising along the converging part Langmuir cells where zooplankton were concentrating. Over the coming days, we returned to observe the Basking Sharks and snorkeled with them, observing their feeding. Some photographs were taken, possibly by John Heine, but I don't know what became of those photos. These were the fist sightings anyone could remember since Basking Sharks were greatly reduced or extirpated from the region earlier in the century. Cheryl "Shirly" Badwini was one of these fellow students present during these first observations, and she ended up studying these basking Sharks for her masters degree.

Since this time, Basking Sharks have become increasingly common in and around the Monterey Bay and at Big Sur. The Pacific Shark Research Center at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories now runs the Spot a Basking Shark Project which includes an online reporting form.

The NOAA Fisheries Southwest Fisheries Science Centre has also requested information from public observers on Basking Sharks by telephone or email shown at this link.

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