WHALE SHARK

The whale shark is a slow moving filter feeding shark. Also it’s the largest living fish in the shark species. It can grow up to 12.2 m (40 ft.) in length and in weight up to 13.6 tones. The fish is found in tropical and warm oceans and lives in the open sea and can live for about 70 years. It has also originated about 60 million years ago. A whale shark eats how it depends on his size they got a slow metabolism which means that they need 2/3 days to digest their meals. So if it weighs 13 tons, it might eat 400 kilograms of food in 2-3 days. The whale fish eats huge amounts of plankton. The water is then filtered through spongy tissue around it’s gills. When the whale shark closes its mouth it uses it’s gills rakers ( it’s a thousands of bristles) in it’s mouth to filter and eat the tiny plants and animals, which include small fish, crustaceans, and squid. The giant fish will swim with school of fish of tiny creatures so as to maximize how much it can in it’s mouth. Because of the way they eat, and the fact that it’s 3000 tiny teeth are virtually useless, a whale shark presents no danger to people.