Whale Shark

📖 1. Overview

Reaching 12–18 m in length and 20 tonnes in weight, it is a gentle filter-feeding shark and the largest of all living fish.

🌐 Wikipedia Summary Extract

The whale shark is a slow-moving, filter-feeding carpet shark and the largest known extant fish species. An individual with a length of 18.8 m (61.7 ft) has been considered the largest reliably recorded. The whale shark holds many records for size in the animal kingdom, most notably being by far the largest living non-cetacean animal. It is the only living species of the genus Rhincodon and the only extant member of the family Rhincodontidae, which belongs to the subclass Elasmobranchii in the class Chondrichthyes. Before 1984, it was classified as Rhiniodon into Rhinodontidae. An extinct species, Rhincodon ferriolensis, was described in Europe, in the Late Burdigalian stage.

🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology

The pattern of white spots and stripes on its back is unique to each individual like a human fingerprint, and with its 1.5 m-wide mouth it filters 6,000 liters of seawater per hour to feed on plankton.

🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior

Even the surface of its eyeballs is covered with tiny tooth-like scales (dermal denticles) to protect the eyes from external impact.

🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea

It is a protected marine species observed during summer along the coast of Jeju Island and in the South Sea.