When many people think of a shark, they picture a large, vicious, streamlined fish with long, sharp teeth and a desire to attack and eat any living thing it sees. There have probably been more stories told about sharks than about any other group of fishes. Many of these tales are exaggerated, but it is true that the largest fish in the world is a shark. This giant of the fishes is called the whale shark because of its size, and the name is also appropriate on account of its method of feeding.
It seems strange that the whale shark, which sometimes reaches a length of fifty feet and a weight of several tons, is the enemy of no large animals. Although even a half-grown whale shark has a mouth four feet wide that would easily hold a man, this large shark eats only very small fishes and the minute plant and animal life found in the sea. Inside its mouth are many rows of tiny backward-pointing teeth, each about one-eighth of an inch long and numbering in the thousands.
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| Whale sharks are rare, mysterious, beautiful and gentle. |
If you were to run your hand over the teeth of a whale shark, the sensation would be much like touching a rough file. The scientist who first described this shark called it Rhineodon, which means file tooth. These teeth are not used for biting or tearing as are those of many sharks. The huge whale shark swims along near the surface of the water with its large mouth open. The water flows through its mouth and out of large gill slits on the side of its head. Between its mouth and the gill slits is a set of gill rakers, especially constructed to act as a sieve and strain out the small animals and plants that form the food of the whale shark.
The whale shark is rather brightly marked with yellowish-white spots on a brown background, making a kind of combined checkerboard and polka dot pattern. Probably to one who is unfamiliar with the habits of this shark, the sight of the huge fish swimming in the water would be frightening. However, there is little reason to be afraid of it, for unlike certain dangerous sharks, the whale shark has never been known intentionally to cause damage or loss of life. Occasionally a whale shark has been known to swim right up to a boat and drift around and around the vessel, apparently out of curiosity. This action may be dangerous to the shark, for there are some reports that several have been
bumped by large boats and injured. Because of its inoffensive habits, the Cubans call the whale shark pez dama, which means lady fish or gentle one
Harpooning the whale shark is quite difficult, not because it is hard to come within range of one but because of its tough hide. Most sharks have an extremely strong skin, and the skin of a whale shark might be compared in quality to a hard rubber tire. Therefore, a harpoon unless thrown with much strength at exactly the correct angle will seldom penetrate this tough skin, and even buckshot may glance off, leaving the shark uninjured.
Whale sharks have been found in the warmer parts of almost all oceans but they are not seen very frequently, and during the one hundred and twenty years that they have been known and studied, only about one hundred have been captured. Because whale sharks are rare, many facts about them are still unknown to science.
Biologist Ocean Ramsey swims with a whale shark.
After reading about whale sharks (above) and watching one in the video by a scientist, you can sew all kinds of stuffed play sharks, whales and fish by watching the following video at youtube:
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