The whale shark is the largest fish in existence, and although it is called a "whale shark", it has little to do with whales. It is the largest presence in the shark family and the mildest shark in the shark family.
Before humpback whales took the initiative to find humans to help clean up the barnacles on their bodies, the existing whale sharks were entangled in fishing nets and took the initiative to ask humans for help, is it really like netizens said, the news that humans can help them has spread in the sea?
Whale sharks that actively seek help from humans
As we all know, there are many creatures in the ocean that are very intelligent, such as dolphins, killer whales, humpback whales, etc. They have rich emotions, their own language system, and their own population sound social system, etc., and even some marine organisms have brains that are very close to human brains.
Many of them will take the initiative to get close to humans, and even take the initiative to ask for help from humans when they encounter unsolvable difficulties, and among these spiritually full of marine life, there are whale sharks.
A foreign brother once uploaded a video on the Internet to help the whale shark when he went diving, in which the whale shark slowly swam to the side of the brother from a distance, and then lingered without meaning to leave. The little brother found that there was a bunch of fishing nets hanging on its right fin, and when he looked closer, he found that the fishing net had been deeply strangled into the skin and flesh of the whale shark, and it was obvious that he could not get rid of the shackles of the fishing net by himself at this time.
So the little brother tried to help it, and when he found that the whale shark was just obediently waiting for no move, the little brother took out the knife he carried with him and helped the whale shark cut the fishing net, successfully saving this "big man".
When the little brother took the fishing net off the whale shark, he found that the fishing net was already full of dense barnacles, and it was hard to imagine how painful it should be for this whale shark to hang such a large string of barnacles strangled into the flesh every day. Fortunately, it met this diving brother in time, otherwise the consequences may be unimaginable, and finally in the excited exclamation of the little brother, the whale shark swam forward easily and slowly.
In Indonesia, there are also fishermen who once encountered a small whale shark approaching when they drove back to the dock after catching fish. Probably because the baby whale shark can't catch enough food, after approaching, it neither attacks the boat nor fears humans, but constantly opens its mouth, as if asking fishermen for food. The fishermen, who were so cute by the small whale shark's behavior, gave it some fish, and after getting the fish, the baby whale shark swam away satisfied.
It can also be seen that whale sharks are indeed relatively close to humans, although whale sharks are sharks of the genus Whale sharks, but their temper is very mild. And in addition to its huge size, because its appearance and habits are more similar to whales, it got its name whale shark.
Not all sharks attack people, and whale sharks are the alternative among sharks. Unlike other sharks, whale sharks are not ferocious predators, they are filter feeders that feed mainly on marine organisms such as plankton, giant algae, small fish and shrimp.
Whale sharks have a large mouth 1.5 meters wide, and when eating, they will open their mouths, swallow food and seawater, and then drain the sea water through the gills on both sides, leaving only food. The gill raker of the whale shark is similar to a filter, which can filter out any object larger than 2-3 cm, and any object that is filtered out will be swallowed by the whale shark. Interestingly, whale sharks have been observed to "cough" behavior, which scientists speculate is whale sharks cleaning up food accumulated in gill rakers.
So whale sharks are actually filtering creatures, and this way of feeding is more similar to the way baleen whales eat. Although the whale shark's 10 food filters have 300-350 rows of tiny teeth, its teeth are basically useless because the teeth are too small.
Can you believe that whale sharks can even swim with divers?
Sharks "with stars"
The whale shark's skin is grayish and covered with white spots and stripes, which look like stars in the night sky. So the Javanese people of Indonesia also call it "a fish with stars on its back".
It is said that there are no two identical leaves in the world, and the spots on the whale shark are the same. Their spots are unique, like human fingerprints, unique and cannot be replicated, and whale shark individuals can be distinguished by the spots on their bodies. And if it is injured, it will grow new and identical spots in the injured area, which can be said to be very magical.
Whale sharks like to live in warm waters, and swim very slowly, often like to float on the surface of the water to soak up the sun, so when divers encounter them, they will swim with them.
And it has also been found that whale sharks sometimes remain stationary, turning their bodies upside down to let divers help it clean up parasites in its abdomen, maybe in the eyes of whale sharks, humans are like fish, but "small fish" with cleaning functions may also be.
However, when divers swim with whale sharks, although they will not be attacked by whale sharks, they should still pay special attention not to be hit by the huge tail fin of whale sharks, if they are accidentally hit by the tail fin of whale sharks, then the small body of humans will definitely be injured.
In addition to swimming slowly, whale sharks also have a slow development cycle. Whale sharks are ovoviviparous, and female whale sharks do not directly give birth to baby whale sharks after pregnancy, but will leave eggs in the body and release them after the baby whale sharks grow to 40-60 cm. Because some juveniles grow fast and some juveniles grow slower, the juveniles are not born at the same time. Females will preserve the fluid and then steadily breed young over a long period of time.
However, scientists have also found that whale sharks are not always so slow, and they sometimes swoop down and dive into deep water like eagles swooping down from high altitudes.
Whale sharks are usually solitary and rarely gather together unless they are found foraging in areas where food is particularly abundant. In contrast, male whale sharks have a greater range of motion than female whale sharks, and female whale sharks prefer to be found in specific locations.
Whale sharks live longer and can live to be 70-100 years old, but their numbers are not many, because many whale sharks have not lived to adulthood and died out.
Why whale shark populations have plummeted
Whale sharks are the largest fish in existence, and they are not considered adults until they are 30 years old, when they can reproduce. Adult whale sharks are usually 9-12 meters long and up to 20 meters long, and female sharks are generally larger than male sharks, weighing up to 9-21 tons. Adult whale sharks eat a huge amount of food, eating about 2 tons of food a day, and they often follow human fishing boats, feasting on fishing nets when people catch fish.
When fishermen fished before, because the fishing net broke a hole, the fish swam out along the gap, and after the whale shark found it, it swam up to the fishing net three times five by two to suck out the fish in the net and swallow it, although the fishermen accelerated the speed of closing the net after the discovery, but most of the fish were swallowed by the whale shark.
It is precisely because of this gluttony that whale sharks have trapped themselves in fishing nets, and two whale sharks have been trapped in fishing nets because of gluttony, and finally divers cut the nets to rescue them.
Originally, whale sharks were so large, which also meant that they had almost no natural predators in the sea, and their numbers should not be so small, but due to human fishing, they became endangered.
Whale sharks are one of the targets of the aquaculture industry in many regions, and in Southeast Asia, especially Taiwan, it is the main fishing area for whale sharks. Because its fins can be used to make shark fins and meat can be sold for a lot of money, whale sharks have been hunted uncontrollably by humans. It was not until the Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan banned whale shark fishing that the whale shark population recovered.
In other places, whale sharks, although not targeted, can be caught by mistake. In the past, when fishing boats were not so advanced, two whale sharks were mistakenly caught by fishermen in fishing nets. Because the fishing nets plus whale sharks weigh tens of tons, they can't pull them up, so the fishermen have to give up the nets.
But the whale sharks were still trapped in the net, and fortunately there were some small fish trapped in the net so that they would not starve to death, and finally they were able to escape after being cut open by divers. These two whale sharks are undoubtedly lucky, but there are many more whale sharks that are not so lucky, and many whale sharks often lose their lives due to bycatch.
In addition, because whale sharks often float on the surface of the sea to eat plankton, they sometimes lose their lives due to being hit by ships. Coupled with human factors such as marine garbage pollution and entanglement in fishing nets, they eventually continue to decline in number and become endangered animals.
In fact, in addition to whale sharks, similar things are happening in other marine creatures. For example, on a coast abroad, a mother dolphin took her child to the shore to ask for help from humans because her child was entangled in its tail in a fishing net.
Because the mother and son have been wandering on the shore for a long time and refuse to leave, this has attracted people's attention. After discovering their situation, well-wishers immediately brought the little dolphin to the beach, and after putting a towel on it to prevent it from getting hurt, they quickly found scissors to cut the fishing net.
In the process, its mother has also been anxiously waiting in the shallow water on the shore, and after people worked together to send the baby dolphin back to the sea, the dolphin mother immediately rushed to the child's side and swam back to the sea together. But what if the dolphin mother and son were unlucky and did not meet humans? Then the ending may not be so rosy.
But fortunately, because human beings are now paying more and more attention to environmental protection, the ecological environment of the ocean is gradually improving. On July 25, 2021, four whale sharks preyed collectively in the waters of Lingshui Jiezhou Island, Hainan, which is also the third time since 2021 that the staff of the tourist area found whale sharks foraging in the waters of Boundary Island Island, but the first two times were solitary whale sharks, and this time there were four rare whale sharks, which also made people who witnessed it excited.
This also shows that the local government has achieved remarkable results in protecting the marine ecological environment for more than ten years.