Whale Shark

Whale Shark, the largest of all sharks and the largest of all fishes. The biggest specimen measured was nearly 45 feet (15.2 meters) in length. The whale shark is the only large shark covered with white spots and the only shark with the mouth at the end of the snout rather than below it. Unlike the vast majority of sharks, the whale shark does not prey on large fish or other large vertebrates. Instead, it strains small animals from the water like the baleen whale and like the basking shark, which is the next-largest fish.

Image via Wikipedia

Whale sharks are open-sea fishes found in tropical waters around the world. They sometimes range as far north as New York and as far south as southern Brazil and Australia. They are especially abundant in the Philippines, the Red Sea, the Caribbean region, and the Gulf of California. In the Caribbean, whale sharks have been observed commingled with tunas, apparently feeding on the same schools of small fish.

The huge mouth measures 5 feet (1.5 meters) across in medium-size individuals. The numerous tiny teeth are not used to catch food. Instead, the whale shark uses its gill rakers to strain plankton, small fishes, and squid from the water. The rakers are attached to the bottom of the gill bars and extend forward into the throat, where they form an interlocking net somewhat like the baleen (whalebone) plankton strainer in whales. When water is strained through the rakers, food animals are trapped and swallowed.

Sometimes whale sharks feed while cruising slowly along the surface. At other times they take up a vertical, tail-down position and bob up and down in the water, gulping their prey on each upward bob.

Whale sharks are egg layers. An egg case found in the Gulf of Mexico contained a young whale shark 14 inches (36 cm) long.

Whale sharks are of no economic importance because their liver lacks the concentration of vitamin A that has made some sharks valuable catches. The whale shark, Rhiniodon typus (sometimes also classified as Rhincodon typus), is the sole member of the family Rhiniodontidae (or Rhincodontidae) in the order Orectolobiformes, which includes carpet sharks and nurse sharks as well.

Image via Wikipedia