#836: Wobbegong

The Wobbegong, or carpet sharks, are a Family of sharks. They can be characterised by their cryptic colouration and generally flattened form. This makes her an ideal ambush predator and she spends much of her life resting on the ocean floor. Her whisker-like lobes are sensory organs, used to detect prey as it comes near her. Her teeth are small, but sharp, and although she mostly consumes small fish, she will bite if stepped on or provoked by divers.

#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.

Creature Feature #422: Leopard Shark

The Leopard Shark is a slender, relatively small shark, found along the Pacific Coast of North America. He is harmless, favouring a diet of sea life such as clams, crustacean and fish. Suction is used to capture his prey. Shark eggs hatch within the uterus of the female, the youngsters sustained by a yolk until she will give birth to as many as 37. These youngsters take many years to mature. Although currently classified as "least concern", Leopard Sharks can experience local declines, due to their slow maturation rates. They are occasionally caught by recreational fishermen and make excellent eating, but due to mercury and other pollutants, it is inadvisable to eat them too frequently.