Basking Sharks occur in temperate and boreal oceans. In the North Atlantic, the species occurs from the transition between Atlantic and Arctic waters (including the Gulf of Maine, south and west of Iceland and off the North Cape of Norway and Russia) to the Mediterranean, and occasionally as far south as Senegal and Florida. The different morphological characteristics of Basking Sharks in the Pacific and the north and south Atlantic oceans are not thought to indicate separate species (Compagno 1984), but geographically isolated populations.