🤯 Did You Know (click to read)
Confirmed observations of pregnant basking sharks are extremely uncommon, adding to the mystery of their reproductive cycle.
Despite the enormous size of adult basking sharks, sightings of juveniles and newborns are exceptionally rare. Their nursery grounds remain largely unidentified, creating major gaps in understanding early life stages of one of the ocean’s largest fish.
💥 Impact (click to read)
The idea that a creature capable of reaching bus-length proportions can begin life almost entirely out of scientific view highlights how little of the ocean is directly observed. If gestation lasts years, birth events may occur in remote offshore waters rarely surveyed.
This knowledge gap complicates conservation planning, because protecting breeding adults alone may not safeguard vulnerable young. For a species already limited by slow reproduction, missing data on nurseries represents a significant barrier to long-term population recovery.
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