Whale sharks are the largest species of shark. Their gentle manner and massive size make them the gentle giants of the ocean. However, one especially large whale shark has been spotted off the Pacific ...

Whale sharks, Rhincodon typus, are the largest fish in the world. They can trace their ancestry to the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, 245–65 million years ago, and are members of the ...

Marine biologists have documented the first case of a whale shark surviving with a severe spinal deformity. The finding centers on a 20-foot whale shark first encountered in 2010 at Ewing Bank, a ...

Conservation of whale sharks is fraught with challenges, including targeted hunting, accidental entanglement in fishing nets and changing sea temperatures. However, what ranks way above these ...

Weighing up to several tons, whale sharks are also notable for their markings. Each pattern of spots is unique and scientists identify individual fish using computer programs first developed to study ...

On a calm morning in May, Brianna Beaulieu, a doctoral student in marine biology at the University of Western Australia, and several researchers from around the world boarded two research vessels ...

How can a creature of such enormous size and long-distance migratory behavior cope with a spine twisted in multiple directions? (Whale shark with the spinal deformity not pictured.) Photo by Jenna ...

Four out of five of the largest living fish species spotted at a marine tourism hotspot had “human-caused” scars. Conservationists found that 80.6% of whale sharks seen off Indonesian Papua in the ...

Whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) are the largest fish in the world and are endangered but are hard to study because they’re largely solitary creatures that roam great distances. There are only about 30 ...

Whale sharks, the largest living fish species, are classified as endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Over the past 75 years, populations have declined by more than 50% worldwide, ...

Whale sharks in Indonesia are suffering widespread injuries, with a majority scarred by human activity. Researchers found bagans and boats to be the biggest threats, especially as shark tourism grows.

The world’s largest living fish has plenty to fear from people. New research shows that a large proportion of whale sharks at a popular and protected tourism region bear scars caused by human activity ...