The world ’s largest surviving fish – the whale shark – is a mysterious creature . Despite their size and popularity with ecotourism , trivial is known about the ecology and conduct of this majestic marine species . Now a Modern observation develops our understanding of the dieting and feeding behaviour of these telling animals .
According to theWWF , whale sharks typically feed on half-pint , Pisces the Fishes , and plankton , and are the alsoworld ’s large omnivores . During feeding aggregations , two behaviors are known to occur . The first is that the whale sharks will feed in in a passive style , opening their vast mouths to filter feed . The 2d is a more alive feeding method where individuals float level with the open of the body of water , and repeatedly receptive and close their mouth to actively suck quarry inside and over their gill rakers , internal mouthpart that help with feeding on small sea sprightliness .
Until now no evidence of giant shark feeding on the bottom of the ocean has ever been scientifically record . At an collection site in Baja California Sur , Mexico , research worker receive footage and observe an case-by-case whale shark exhaust the deposit on the sea floor . They suggest that the whale shark could have been look to squander smaller ocean tool living within the deposit itself .
Recorded on a GoPro by a swimmer during a whale shark viewing term of enlistment on December 11 , 2022 , the video recording shows the heavyweight shark feeding on the sea seam at approximately 6 meter ( 19 feet ) deep . The shark turns almost 90 degrees ( 90 second into the video ) and expose a sucking action at law similar to a surface feeding event before removing supernumerary grit from its mouth and repeat the forage conduct .
The squad suggest that the shark is advisedly targeting the benthic tool under the sediment , and while no record book of whale sharks exhibit this behavior before now live , some previous inquiry on their diet has given ascension to conjecture about whether whale sharks do fee on mintage that live on or in the seabed .
The squad go on to intimate that the shark could be actively look to feed onamphipods , flyspeck crustaceans that are commonly found in the same coastal waters as the giant shark , and are known to live around the orbit where the novel feeding behaviour was observed . It is not get laid whether these amphipods populate in this exact area where the feeding was record , and the team suggest this as a next step for future study .
The researchers also accentuate the grandness of safe and respectful ecotourism praxis and play up the role of citizen scientists in observe new behaviors . In 2022,megamouth sharkswere spotted from a fishing boat , leading to the first observation of what is thought to be courtship behavior .
The study is published in theJournal of Fish Biology .
