Whale sharks......
The Indian Ocean has an abundance of Whale Sharks, an encounter with such a creature in it's natural environment is very difficult to describe.
Order: Orectolobiforms Family:
Rhincodontidae Species: Rhincondon Typus Common name: Whaleshark General
identification: The Largest living fish on the planet, commonly reaching
lengths of 12 meters with unconfirmed sightings of up to 18 meters long. The
upper half of the body is a dark grey, covered in pale spots and darker
stripes with three raised ridges each side of the dorsal fin, running the
length of the body. The lower half is a very pale grey to complete white.As
opposed to most other shark species, the mouth is located at the front of the
whalesharks head, rather than being recessed towards its chin.
Distribution:
Whalesharks can be found from 30 degrees North to 35 degrees South, in all
tropical waters. However, they are not common, and many professional
photographers, marine biologists and shark experts have dived for more than 20
years before their first whaleshark encounter.From the months of October
through Febuary, whalesharks are often seen in Kenyan waters, with huge
aggregations having been found off Chale Island, on Kenya's south coast over
the last four years.
Feeding:
Whalesharks are filter feeders, living mainly off plankton which they sieve
out of the water by swimming through plankton blooms with their huge mouths
held wide open. Although whalesharks do have thousands of tiny teeth, the
largest food that they swallow are small tunas and bonitos which might
inadvertently be sucked into their mouths as the whalesharks swim through fish
balls, gathered around plankton.
Reproduction: The species is
Ovo-viviparus and not Oviparous, as initially thought, meaning that the
embryos are developed in an egg but hatch in utero and are then born live, as
opposed to an egg being laid on the ocean floor and left to hatch on its
own.In 1995 an 8 meter long female, that had been harpooned, was disected and
approximately 300 embryos, in various stages of development, were found. The
largest of which was 70cm long and already out of the egg sack.
A friendly whale shark experience. Click here to read this fabulous real life story of an encounter with one of these friendly monsters of the sea. Do you have your own experience? We would love to hear it. Click here to submit for inclusion.
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