Interesting Facts about Whale Shark

"This site is great, I never knew so many interesting facts about whale shark!"

The whale shark are actually fish and not whales. Not only that but they are the biggest fish in the world and a fully grown whale shark can be as long as 15 metres in length and weigh 20 tonnes.

Whale sharks are the biggest fish in the world but they are also a very gentle fish. They eat only plankton and other small fish and are not interested in eating other things. That is why people from all over the world travel to Ningaloo Reef at Coral Bay during the spawning of the coral to swim with the whale sharks. The spawning of the coral happens between March and June. This attracts the whale shark for food.

The correct species name of a whale shark is Rhincodon typus with "Rhincodon" meaning "rasp teeth" - which is what the whale sharks 4,000 tiny teeth look like (a rasp). The teeth are about the size of a match head or 0.3cm high.

Whale shark are a pelagic species. This means they swim in the open ocean but usually found in the tropical parts of the oceans.

Whale sharks are reddish brown in colour with a patttern of lines that crisscross each other on their skin. Inside these grids are yellow dots.

Additional interesting facts about whale shark is they pay no attention to boats. At there size why would they? So boat owners and captains need to be careful where whale sharks are and it is up to the boat to avoid "accidents".

This is one of five pages relating to Whale Sharks.

The other pages are:

If you come on our 11 Day Adventure Tour we can organise for you to go on a whale shark tour where you get to actually swim with these magnificent creatures.