Whale Shark

Description:

The whale shark is a slow-moving filter feeding shark, the largest living fish species. - Wiki

Habitat:

The shark is found in tropical and warm oceans, lives in the open sea with a lifespan of about 70 years. The whale shark inhabits all tropical and warm-temperate seas.They are known to migrate every spring to the continental shelf of the central west coast of Australia. The coral spawning of the area's Ningaloo Reef provides the whale shark with an abundant supply of plankton. Primarily pelagic, seasonal feeding aggregations occur at several coastal sites such as the southern and eastern parts of South Africa; Gladden Spit in Belize; Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia; Útila in Honduras; Donsol, Pasacao and Batangas in the Philippines; off Isla Mujeres and Isla Holbox in Yucatan, Mexico; Ujung Kulon National Park in Indonesia; Nosy Be in Madagascar Off Tofo Reef near Inhambane in Mozambique, and the Tanzanian islands of Mafia, Pemba, Zanzibar and, very rarely, Eilat, Israel. Although typically seen offshore, it has been found closer to land, entering lagoons or coral atolls, and near the mouths of estuaries and rivers. Its range is generally restricted to about ±30° latitude. It is capable of diving to depths of 700 metres (2,300 ft), and is migratory.--Wiki

Notes:

1. One female can have thousands of eggs just like other sharks and they grow inside her and hatch inside her and escape mother shark alive and swimming. There is naturally, a high baby shark mortality rate in the wild. 2. The whale sharks at the GA have not yet reproduced, although there are male and females in the exhibit together. Reproduction in captivity is a sign that conditions are acceptable and habitable. The whale sharks at the GA might not yet be sexually mature. If thousands of baby whale sharks were suddenly in the exhibit, some would be lost to natural causes, others would be lost to other creatures eating them in the exhibit, but the keepers would have to remove most of the surviving baby whale sharks because the exhibit was not designed to hold thousands of adult whale sharks, but just a few. They could be released into the wild, as they don't really get much training from momma whale shark, unlike whales. 3. They are called Whale Sharks, but they are not Whales. Whales are mammals. These are sharks, but not like Jaws. They eat by filtering plankton, small shrimp, and other smaller creatures. 4. Georgia Aquarium. These Whale Sharks were caught by local fishermen who would typically sell them at market for human consumption. However, they heard about the GA's interest in purchasing a live one within certain size and sold it to the GA instead of the fish market. The fishermen and GA biologists took care of it and trained them while it waited for its new home. The sharks lived in an ocean pen until the Georgia Aquarium exhibit was built and so it could be trained to eat from a huge scoop and trained to eat less vertical and (more horizontal) to accomodate the GA exhibit's bottom. 5. UPS and GA scientists designed a special crate to transport the Whale Sharks from the ocean waters of Taiwan to Atlanta, GA. The fish were flown more than 8,000 miles on a UPS B-747 freighter from Taipei, Taiwan, through Anchorage to Atlanta. The two sharks each are about 13 feet in length and together weigh nearly 2,200 pounds. (info in notes from personal experience and http://www.everything-science.com/index2... article)