The whale shark - the largest fish in the world

It's no secret that most of the whale shark in the ranking of the largest marine life takes pride of first place.Indeed, the biggest fish in the world deserves to be in the first positions of this ranking, because it can reach huge sizes.On average, there are representatives of this kind of about twelve meters in length, and their weight reaches fifteen tons.True, the biggest fish in the world is among the species of whale sharks and it weighs about 36 tonnes with a length of the body more than 20 meters.

Indeed, because of its appearance, the whale shark is like a monster.Its flat face with placed her tiny eyes, huge mouth, which contains several rows of very sharp, small teeth, is capable of inducing fear and terror.At the same time, the biggest fish in the world, if we consider it fully, has short bristles, like antennae, and the dark gray color of the skin sometimes gets more spots, which makes it quite beautiful.The combination of bright spots with yellow stripes on the abstract brownish-gray background attract the eye and make admire nature's ability to create beauty.

quite a long time whale sharks exist only in stories of various explorers who traveled mainly in tropical seas.But with the beginning of the XIX century, not far from the coast of South Africa, oddly enough in the cold waters, the fishermen for the first time managed to catch a huge fish, which turned out to be the whale shark.Since then, for the study of marine life representatives and monitor their behavior, scientists have tried to deliver shark research institutions.However, they managed to do it very often, only about a hundred times, because of the huge size of transportation is much more difficult.

biggest fish in the world is found most often in the warm waters of the tropical and subtropical zones of the Earth.However, there are cases where the whale shark seen in the cold waters of the northern seas, and in the western Mediterranean Sea.In winter, the vital activity of these sea giants is significantly reduced, in most cases they hibernate.As it usually occurs in surface waters, various vessels often encountered with them.During hibernation the biggest fish in the world eats its own fat.

No matter how strange, but the whale shark eats only plankton.It floats on water expanses with open mouth, simultaneously sucking everything she comes across with the water.It may be small fish and tiny crustaceans, algae and with the remnants of food from the ships.Anything that enters the mouth shark, filtered through interlocked rows of small teeth, and water passes through the gills, located near to the eyes.Stamens that are in the structure of the gills, keep any particles suitable as food.

biggest fish in the world is quite peaceful.She almost never attacks the large expanses of sea life, as well as divers.The whale shark can allow a person to come close enough to the small distance.Taking advantage of this, experienced and daring divers swim to it in order to remove a video camera, or to photograph.Some of the boldest, even managed to withdraw riding on this fish.The danger does not represent jaws of this huge sea beauties, and the collision with her.Not everyone is able to withstand powerful blows of its tail or body.

hunt for whale sharks is prohibited in many countries due to its extinction as a species.However, unfortunately there are places that are not subject to such a taboo.For this reason, the big whale sharks are still on the verge of extinction.