Whale shark is the largest existing fish in the world, and the adult whale shark is generally 7~ 10 meter long. Whale sharks are also called "fish with stars on their backs" because their backs are covered with spots.

Whale sharks are called "papashillingi" in Kenya, because Kenyans believe that God throws shillings at whale sharks, so there are such spots.

Whale sharks live in the upper and middle layers of warm ocean waters, mainly distributed in tropical and temperate waters, and distributed in the range of 30-35 degrees north and south latitude. There will also be migration behavior, sometimes between 4 1 north latitude and 36.5 south latitude. Common in South China Sea, Taiwan Province Strait, East China Sea and South Yellow Sea of China.

Hunting habits of whale sharks

Whale sharks are filter feeders, feeding on plankton, macroalgae, krill and small self-swimming animals (such as small squid and vertebrates). Their teeth don't function as foragers. In fact, they are not big. Instead, whale sharks take a sip of water, close their mouths and drain water from their gills. In the short time between the closure of the mouth and the opening of the gill cover, plankton is captured by the cortical scales in the gills and throat.

This filter-like organ is a unique variant of gill rake, which can prevent any object larger than 2 to 3 mm from passing through and the liquid will be discharged. Anything blocked by the gills filter will be swallowed by whale sharks. It has been observed that whale sharks cough, which is considered as a way to clean up food accumulated in gill rakes.

Whale sharks gather in the reef area of the Caribbean in Belize to prey on the eggs of giant Brazilian snapper, which will appear between the full moon and the chord moon in May, June and July. The main foods of whale sharks are krill, crab larvae, jellyfish, sardines, anchovies, mackerel, small tuna and squid.