To obtain food, they often swim below the surface with their mouths wide open. As they swim slowly, they filter plankton out of the water, which is caught in the weirs of their gills and then ingested. Zooplankton, mainly copepods, are captured in mucus-covered teeth that are flushed into the esophagus when the mouth is closed.
The basking shark is the only type of filter-feeding shark that feeds without ingesting water, simply by passing a current through its throat.
