Friday, February 26, 2016

#830: Whale Shark

Like the largest mammal, the largest fish also dines upon the smallest of creatures - plankton*. Whale Sharks can grow over 12m in length, weighing in at around 20 tons, and may grow significantly larger.He is a slow-moving shark, swimming through the water with his huge mouth open. Water is filtered through his 300 rows of tiny teeth and over his sieve-like filter pads. Crustaceans and other plankton is then swallowed, with excess water expelled through his gills. Whale Sharks are docile fish, and Vulnerable to extinction due to their long life and slow maturation.

* Not that plankton is exactly one creature. It is considered an ecological niche and can be divided into four trophic groups: Zoo- (crustaceans, larvae and any small lifeform ranging in size from microscopic to jellyfish); phyto- (lifeforms that require photosynthesis); myco- (fungi etc) and bacterio- (bacteria and archea).

I suspect the Whale Sharks diet consists predominantly of zooplankton.

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