Animal House: (Whale) Shark Tales

Last week during Shark Week, the crew and I traveled south to the Georgia Aquarium, the largest aquarium in the world! 

The exhibits there are second to none and this is the type of place one would want to spend days in. But we were there for a very specific reason, as we were working with the whale shark. 

The whale shark is not only the largest fish in the world, but also the largest shark. We got to go into the 6.3 million gallon exhibit and swim with these amazing creatures. 

I for one got a very close up and personal with one of the whale sharks, as it seemed to take a liking to me.  At one point I was literally face to face with a shark that had a four and a half foot wide mouth attached to a sixty-foot long body weighing several thousand pounds. 

Although the whale shark is actually a vegetarian, one couldn’t help but be a bit nervous getting up close and personal.

This encounter was not unusual as the whale shark is actually very mild mannered and in the wild there have been hundreds of accounts of scuba divers and snorkelers getting close to these animals and touching them and even hitching a brief ride by hanging onto their dorsal fin.   

The whale shark can be found throughout the world, and has been seen as close to us as New York.  More commonly we see basking sharks in our waters, which are the second largest fish in the world, and are equally as large. 

The basking sharks have been seen regularly in the spring, summer and the fall in Cape Cod bay and Massachusetts Bay.  They are a close relative to the whale shark. Both the whale shark and our basking shark are considered filter feeders and mainly eat plankton. 

Whale sharks can have up to three thousand tiny teeth, but are essentially useless as the whale shark feeds by opening its huge mouth and drawing in large amounts of water and sieving out the plankton and vegetation material in the water through its gills. 

In fact, the placement of the mouth and its size is what makes these sharks different from a typical shark. The mouth of a typical shark has rows of razor sharp teeth set under its head, while the whale shark and Basking sharks mouth is at the tip of its head. 

There is relatively little research and knowledge of the whale and basking sharks regarding their migration habits and their mating and birthing habits. To date no one has ever seen the whale shark mate and there has only been one pregnant whale shark ever sighted, and no births have ever been witnessed.

Whale sharks do lead a solitary life as they do not travel in groups and are almost always seen alone.  The whale shark prefers living in more shallow depths instead of the sea floor. 

This gentle plankton-eating giant has almost no predators once it gets through the first few years of life.  As a smaller animal it is commonly fed upon by other sharks and carnivorous predators.  Once it reaches full size the only predator this animal has are humans. 

It is considered at risk of facing extinction as it is heavily fished in countries like Taiwan.  Having had the experience to swim with this gorgeous animal and experience in person their grace and beauty, I am once again reminded of how amazing our ecosystem is and how lucky we are to share it with such beautiful creatures. 

If you encounter a basking shark up in our waters, remember they are huge but gentle and the best way to experience the wonders of the nature that surrounds us is with a safe distance and respect for the animals’ space.  This keeps both the animal and humans safe and happy.

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I hope you will check out the video of my up close and personal time with the whale shark (in the media gallery above)! Other Animal House videos are available here: http://youtu.be/EW0D0Wmb8J0.

If you have any questions about an animal or about dog training, please send them in—I would love to answer them for you.