World’s Largest Fish – Dale’s Daily Data [VIDEO]

What’s the biggest fish in the world?  You’d probably say something like an Orca, or blue or killer whale.  But it’s actually the whale shark.  Incredibly big, but endangered.

The whale shark is actually a shark.  They can grow up to 65-feet long and weigh 75-thousand pounds – that’s approaching 40 tons.

You’ll find them in the warmer waters of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans.  They have patterns of spots and stripes on their back in various colors and unlike regular sharks who hunt for their food, the whale shark is like a giant eating machine.  It sucks in water at the rate of 15-hundred gallons of water an hour and consumes everything it pulls in – small fish, plankton, sometimes even larger fish and squid.  The water it pulls in exits thru the gills and rows of teeth act almost like a rake to trap the food, then moves it to digest it.

Female whale sharks give birth to live offspring that are about two feet long.  One of its prime breeding grounds is an area north of Cancun, Mexico.  Each summer the whale sharks return to mate and it’s become a tourist attraction where you can actually swim with the whales.

They live good, long lives.  They’re believed to live in the range of 60 to 150 years.

SOURCE: about.com