The basking shark is the second largest fish in the world and a spectacular summer visitor to British waters where it filters plankton near the surface, but its welfare is threatened by historical hunting, boat strikes, and net entanglement.
Basking shark welfare has been severely compromised by historical commercial hunting that reduced populations to a fraction of former abundance. Current threats include boat strikes from recreational and commercial vessels, entanglement in pot lines and nets, and disturbance from wildlife tourism boats that approach too closely. As an exceptionally large, slow-reproducing species, population recovery is slow and each individual mortality has significant demographic impact on future populations.