How much do sharks weigh?

Adult sharks weigh anywhere from much less than 1 pound to 42,000 pounds or more. The dwarf lantern shark, reaching a maximum length of 8 inches, is the smallest, while the whale shark tops the list at more than 40 feet in length.

Some of the other large species include the basking, great white and hammerhead sharks, which weigh 14,000, 5,000 and 1,000 pounds, respectively. Smaller sharks include the whitetip reef and blacktip reef sharks, which tip the scale at 40 and 30 pounds at maturation. More than half of the roughly 400 shark species are smaller, measuring less than 39 inches.