Whale sharks dive deeper than expected
The world's largest fish, the whale sharks, dive deeper and longer than previously thought. Scientists at the Wildlife Conservation Society found this after fitting an animal with a probe that recorded the shark's migrations and dives over 206 days.
During this time, the whale shark dived to depths of around 980 meters and experienced temperature fluctuations of almost thirty degrees. The shark regularly went down twice a day, but lingered in the upper layers of the water at night. The animal followed the swarms of whale sharks’ favorite food, the cubera snappers, which spawn en masse in the near-surface water on a full moon and form dense groups.
The huge whale sharks, Rhicodon typus, can be up to 20 meters long. Unlike other shark species, they feed exclusively on floating and small swimming organisms such as plankton and small fish. So far, researchers have not been able to explain their thick, temperature-insulating layer of fat in the animals native to tropical latitudes. Now it is clear that it benefits the animals in oceanic depths with temperatures a few degrees above zero, the researchers say.
