Born Free Foundation - Keep Wildlife in the Wild

The 10m 7-tonne basking shark is UK’s largest wild creature and the second largest fish in the world, but it is a harmless slow-moving plankton eater.  Approximately 100 million sharks are killed each year for fins (for soup and ‘trophies’ in the Far East), but also for flesh, liver oil and skin.  Local basking shark populations have been hunted near to extinction and numbers have drastically declined due to commercial exploitation. 

Part of the Marine Campaign