The world's largest extant animal is the whale, while the largest living fish species is the shark that was named in honour of this animal, the whale shark.

Its average length is 9 meters, but the examples of an 18-meters length are known.

A whale shark's teeth are tiny but it has over 300 rows of them. The overall number of teeth is as high as several thousand!

It is a rather peaceful shark. Nature created this giant fish to be fed on plankton and small fishes. The shark gathers the volumes of water, filters it through the gills while the teeth lock the food in a mouth and then it goes to the stomach.

As this shark doesn't need to hunt, it is a rather tranquil and slow animal. Its maximum speed is 5 km/h which the shark can reach only under exceptional circumstances. For reference, the great white shark, one of the most dangerous predators, can swim at speeds of over 56 km/h.

Whale shark can be observed in open waters of the tropical oceans and this video has been created near Malpelo Island.

Video by: Alexey Tischenko, photos by Oleg Gaponyuk. Stitching by Ivan Roslyakov

15 July 2022