The Whale Shark
- Annelise Dominello
- Oct 25, 2025
- 4 min read
I haven't posted in a while, with a crazy busy work life, prepping new ideas for Scruffy Pup and doing all my other fanciful hobbies, I wanted to come back with a bang of an animal to write about today.
The Whale Shark...
I found out about these creatures while gathering my information on the Manta Ray. Whale Sharks are giant, beautiful beasts, blue-ish grey in colour with their famous white spotted bodies. Let's get one thing clear before we start, though, they are not actually sharks - they are the world's largest fish! Oh! They are also not considered a whale, either, still just fish. They are named 'whale' because of their sheer size, reminiscent of a whale.
Whale Sharks are gentle giants; they float gracefully and enjoy their lives mostly around tropical and warm temperatures of the world. Here in Australia, we do have access to see these creatures through diving with them; they like to hang out here down under and are commonly found. One day, I will dive with my favourite sea creatures.
The body of the whale shark is pretty unique. Besides their awesome patterns and deep blue-ish grey skin, they have a very wide mouth and a more flattened head compared to other fish. Their pectoral fins are long, 2 dorsal fins, where the 1st one is much larger in size than the 2nd and a very large, long semi-lunate fin, which is their tail. They have small cute eyes on the sides of their head!
Fun Fact: Whale Sharks date back to approximately 60 million years. This means, when dinosaurs were walking our very earth, whale sharks were swimming about!
Like I mentioned before, they are not considered sharks, so they don't have those stereotypical scary, big, pointy teeth that sharks have. Whale sharks are actually filter feeders, just like our Mantra Rays. They open their mouths up to 1.5 meters wide and gather all the yummy goodness of the ocean. Their mouth have up to 300 rows of teeny tiny teeth, but they don't use these teeth like humans do! They count on gill rakers and filtering pads to scoop and filter plankton and small fish to consume.
We use a similar method from the Manta Rays to identify each Whale Shark. They are covered in white spots, all patterned uniquely like a human's fingerprint. So when it comes to finding who is who in their giant underwater world, it's easy for us to snap a picture and find matches to see who we are working with!
Even though they have a fun way to identify, they’re difficult to track and study, so not much is known about them. Whale Sharks have no bones; they are all cartilage! Cartilage, which doesn't fossilise that well, is why we lack information on them.
Some whale sharks do have tracking systems on them, so we can learn more about where they travel to and from. I have an app on my phone called "Fahlo". When in Dubbo a few months ago, I bought a tracker bracelet for whale sharks, and I'm tracking Raja! Raja is named after the word for 'king' in Indonesia. He was tagged in Cendarwashi Bay and is currently swimming around Papua New Guinea, west of Wamena and south of Manokwari, along the ocean's borderline. Watching him do his own thing in protected waters is such a wonderful feeling.
Fun Fact: Whale Shark skin is thick. So thick in fact it can be up to 15 cm. Grab a ruler! This is a protective layer from injuries.
I learnt a new word while researching, by the way! It's ovoviviparous, which means that when animals are reproducing, the fetus is within an egg, but instead of the animal laying the egg, the egg hatches within the body and then the fetus is born live. How cool is that? And yes, you guessed correctly. I bought this up because this is how Whale Sharks reproduce. Not much is known about their reproduction, but at least we know about that cool process!
Whale Sharks, unfortunately, sit on the Endangered on the IUCN's red list, and in Australia, they are listed as Vulnerable under the EPBC Act 1999. Thankfully, they are protected under state and federal laws here in Australia. The biggest threats to these amazing creatures are climate change, bycatch and unsustainable tourism. It's extremely important that when we live our day-to-day lives, we remember that when we make a small change in our lives, it's a huge one in theirs.
Refer to my "Helping fight Climate Change" blog to see how you can help!
I just wanted to list some companies that you can discover that are helping donate money to help and protect Whale Sharks
Fahlo sells bracelets that track animals and help them save wildlife, one bracelet at a time.
animals
Eco Ocean is a direct conservation organisation that helps Whale Sharks. Their website holds countless of information and has options to support and even donate! whaleshark.org.au
IFAW stands for International Fund for Animal Welfare. Their website holds facts and information on many different types of animals, from wildlife to ocean, and collects donations and support from us! ifaw.org/au
Marine Megafauna Foundation helps support Whale Sharks and beat their decline! Their website has interesting news and media, a section where you can adopt, a thorough read through of their projects, an open-minded threat page and even a page with information on diving! They also have access to receive donations. https://marinemegafauna.org/
Thank you all for joining me on my educational journey with Whale Sharks, interesting, gentle giants of the ocean. I hope you've learnt something new in my blog and in my many more blogs to come!
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