Card #082 · Fish
Whale shark
Rhincodon typus
Super Rare EN · Endangered
Field notes
- Classification
- Order Orectolobiformes · Family Rhincodontidae
- Range
- Tropical oceans worldwide
- Size
- Up to 18.8 m (61.7 ft)
- Weight
- ~15,000 kg (33,000 lb)
- Lifespan
- 80–130 yrs
- Diet
- Plankton, small fish
Most Notable
The largest fish alive, reliably measured to 18.8 m, and it eats almost nothing but plankton. It strains over 6,000 litres of water an hour, taking prey no bigger than a sardine.
Every whale shark carries a unique arrangement of pale spots and stripes, and researchers identify individuals from it using pattern-matching software originally written to map stars. Photographs sent in by divers have become a global census of an animal nobody can tag at scale.
It feeds both by ram filtration, swimming forward with its mouth open, and by active suction, and can process over 6,000 litres of water an hour.
Its eyeballs are covered in dermal denticles, tiny tooth-like scales structured differently from those on its body, effectively armour-plating the eye.
Listed as Endangered, with the population down about half over 75 years to ship strikes, finning and bycatch. Major aggregations gather at Ningaloo Reef, the Yucatan and the coasts of Gujarat and Kerala.
Range: Tropical and warm-temperate seas worldwide.