The basking shark’s scientific name, Cetorhinus maximus, roughly translates to “great-nosed sea monster” in Greek. In reality, these placid sharks, found the world over, are totally harmless.

They use more than 5,000 gill rakers to strain 25 kg of plankton from around 1.5 million litres of water per hour which is around the size of a swimming pool Basking sharks are found across the globe.

A whale-watching tour off Southern California got a close-up look at a passing basking shark, which are rarely seen in warmer waters, a video shows. A Davey’s Locker Whale Watching boat spotted ...