biggest fish in world?

Biggest Fish ....

WHALE SHARK

Rhincodon typus

Whale Sharks: Harmless Heavyweights

As fearsome as this guy looks, he actually wouldn't harm a hair on your head. Whale sharks may have big mouths, but it isn't for swallowing people - they're plankton feeders. Plankton are microscopically tiny organisms that thrive in the oceans throughout the world. That's what the shark in the above picture is doing - feeding on plankton. You may not see them in the picture, but he knows they're there.

The huge, gaping mouth is the whale shark's adaptation to feeding on plankton; the wider his mouth opens the more plankton he can scoop up with each "bite". All the water that he takes in to scoop up his meal is simply passed out of his body through his gills, which have sieve-like membranes covering them to filter out the little critters and prevent them from escaping. If you were accidentally scooped up by the whale shark you would find yourself being spit back out through an interesting process called gastric eversion. The whale shark actually turns its stomach inside out and spits it out through its mouth, ejecting the entire contents.

Is it A Shark or a Whale?

You may wonder why this fish is called a whale shark. Scientists have determined that it is a species of shark, because of its skeleton (composed entirely of cartilage), and its tough, leathery, scaleless skin. People called it a whale shark because of its enormous size (like a whale), not because it's a type of whale. A whale is a mammal; a warm-blooded creature that has lungs and breathes air, gives birth to its young and nurses them with milk produced by mammary glands. A shark is a fish; it "breathes" its oxygen by passing water over its gills.

Whale sharks are rare, elusive creatures that scientists still know very little about. One interesting adaptation of the whale shark that scientists have discovered is that it has sensors that run the length of its body which are used for detecting pressure changes in the surrounding water. Whale sharks swim with their huge mouths wide open to chow down, making it hard for their proportionately small eyes to see where they're going. Being able to detect large objects with their pressure sensors gives the shark a "sixth sense" that acts like back-up vision.

A whale shark in the waters off Western Australia

Brian J. Skerry/National Geographic

That would be the "Whale Shark" or Rhincodon typus. The Whale Shark is a shark not a whale. The Whale Shark is a gentle giant, though, its not the typical stereo type of a shark. At the Georgia Aquarium they let you scuba dive with their whale sharks for $190. Check out their website: http://www.georgiaaquarium.org/ I hope to do this in the near future, it sounds like a great experience.

The Whale Shark

The largest salt water fish is the whale shark.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale_shark

The largest freshwater fish is the giant mekong catfish. There is also a giant stingray in the mekong, which may be a contender.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mekong_giant_catfish

The Chinese paddlefish was once regarded as the largest fish (7m long) , but hasn't been seen since 1995.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/07/07...

There is a site dedicated to BIG fish here

http://megafishes.org/

The whale shark (Rhincodon typus) is the largest shark and the largest fish. It is up to 40 feet (12 m) long and weighs up to 15 tons.

LOL, wow Koda. A whale shark is a type of fish. A blue whale is a type of whale, which is a MAMMAL! Whales and dolphins are NOT fish, they are mammals like monkeys, people, and hamsters.

Hi to you and your little grandson :)

The world's largest living fish is the whale shark.

It can grow up to 12.2 m. (40 ft.) in length and can weigh up to 13.6 metric tonnes (15 short tons).

They can live for up to 150 years.

Most people on here would say 'Whale Shark' but in my local chippy it's a 'Special. lol

whale shark

whale shark