Sharks are very popular among marine life. But almost everyone is afraid to meet them face to face, because many of them are deadly, and often the meeting ends in serious misfortune. The exception is the world's largest shark - the whale. They are harmless to humans.
Whale shark is a giant in the ocean
If we talk about the largest sharks, then whale sharks hold the palm, the Latin name of the species is Rhincodon typus. These giants really look like huge aquatic mammals - whales. According to some sources, the size of a whale shark is 20 meters long and weighs 12 tons, while other sources call the numbers much higher: 20 tons with a length of 20 meters.
The whale shark can be found in both northern cold waters and southern bodies of water. In the latter case, they are found in tropical and subtropical seas. They prefer open waters, but occasionally they can enter shallow water. The largest number is found in the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia.
Whale sharks live about as long as humans - an average of 70 years.
Appearance
Having seen the largest fish on Earth, it's hard not to recognize it. It is given off by white streaks or spots that cover a gray-brown or bluish body. It has been established that, like human fingerprints, the pattern created by these marks is absolutely unique for each specimen.
The peculiar appearance of the whale shark gives food for imagination. Thanks to him, in many countries of the world, she received various beautiful names. So, in the South American states it is called "dominoes", in Africa - "daddy shilling" (she got this name because of the legend according to which the Almighty threw white shillings on the fish, and they turned into spots on her body), but on the islands of Java and Madagascar it is customary to call it "multi-star" or "stellar back".
Interestingly, the whale shark uses its entire body when swimming, which is rare for fish that usually use only a fin. At the same time, the average speed of movement of a whale shark is only 5 km / h.
Features of whale shark nutrition
Despite its huge size, this type of shark is harmless to humans. This situation can be explained quite simply: the whale shark, like the whale, feeds on plankton. And thanks to its size, it feels imposingly in the water, since it has no opponents.
Perhaps, thanks to this way of feeding, the whale shark is not like most of its relatives, for which squid, octopus, seals and of course fish are a tasty dish. She is a rather calm and not bloodthirsty inhabitant of the ocean, moreover, with a pleasant color.
The whale shark has very small eyes, huge gill slits and a mouth. In fact, the mouth stretches from eye to eye and has up to 15,000 small teeth. It can fit a total of five people. With the help of their kind of natural filter, they draw in significant masses of plankton inside themselves. During the day, she eats up to two centners of plankton and small crustaceans, passing more than 300 tons of water through herself. Adult sharks most often feed on the surface of the ocean, and juveniles filter the water in search of food at depth.
