Occurrence of basking shark, Cetorhinus maximus (Elasmobranchii: Lamniformes: Cetorhinidae), off the Syrian coast (eastern Mediterranean) with first description of egg case

Abstract

The authors report in this paper the first record of basking shark, Cetorhinus maximus (Gunnerus, 1765), off the coast of Syria (eastern Mediterranean). The specimen was an adult female, 690 cm total length and weighing approximately 2.5 t. It was a pregnant female at the beginning of gestation and contained 34 egg cases. The first description of C. maximus egg case is provided with short comments on the reproductive biology of the species.