Reaching up to 40 feet in length or more, the whale shark is the largest fish in the sea. Preferring tasty plankton, they pose no threat to humans.
Whale sharks are filter feeders, and swim close to the surface scooping up plankton and any other tiny sea-dwellers they can get their colossal mouths (which can grow up to 1.5 metres wide) around. Their mouths actually contain 300 to 350 rows of tiny teeth, as well as 10 filter pads which they use to feed.
A whale sharks skin is one of its distinguishing features, marked with pale yellow spots and stripes; unique to each individual as a fingerprint on a human, or the stripes of a tiger. They belong to the Chondryichtyes group, alongside sharks, skates and rays. Their skeletons have no bone, instead they are made entirely of cartilage.
Preferring warm, tropical waters they are pelagic, living in the open sea, but not in the greatest depths of the ocean. They live in all tropical waters and are known to migrate each spring to the continental shelf of the west coast of Australia, Ningaloo Reef. They are quite docile animals, and the gentle youngsters will often play with swimmers and divers in the water.
The whale shark is a real treat to encounter in the wild, especially in their own habitat, under the water.