30 August: International Whale Shark Day

• Today is International Whale Shark Day and has been since 2008 when it was decided by delegates at the International Whale Shark Conference in Isla Holbox that there should be a day for promoting awareness about these creatures and their conservation. Here are 10 facts about whale sharks.

1. The scientific name for whale sharks is Rhincodon typus.
2. They are not related to Whales – they are a type of shark. They get that name because they are huge – as big as some whales. In fact, they are the biggest type of fish in the sea and indeed, the biggest animal that isn’t a whale. They can grow to over 40 feet/12m long and can weigh over 20 tons/907kg. They may be big but they’re not dangerous to humans. They’re quite docile and have even been known to let swimmers and divers hitch a ride.
3. They are filter feeders, which means they sieve plankton through their gills, along with small fish and eggs. Hence they are passively eating whenever they are moving. 6,000 litres/1,300 gallons of Water can pass through their gills every hour. At times, if food is particularly plentiful, they can feed more actively by opening their mouths. A whale shark’s mouth can stretch over 1 meter/4 feet wide.
4. Most sharks have 20 to 30 rows of teeth. Whale sharks have more than 300 rows. That’s around 3,000 teeth. Their teeth aren’t very big – less than 6mm/0.2in long.
5. Scientists don’t know for sure how long they live, but guess at 70-100 years. They reach sexual maturity at about 30 years of age. When it comes to making baby whale sharks, the mother has two wombs (as all sharks do) which can hold hundreds of developing embryos, which are born live, though not necessarily all at the same time. Baby whale sharks are 16 to 24 inches/40-60cm long. The smallest whale shark ever found was 15 inches/38cm long, found with its tail tied to a stake at a beach in Pilar, Philippines. It was released into the wild.
6. Female whale sharks aren’t great mothers – they leave their young to fend for themselves. While the adults don’t have many natural enemies due to their immense size, the babies are quite vulnerable. Only about 10% of them survive to become the size of a bus. Hence, they have evolved to grow pretty fast. A juvenile whale shark may eat 21kg/46 pounds of plankton a day.
7. They don’t swim especially fast – their top speed is around 5km/3 miles per hour, but they can cover huge distances. In three years, a single whale shark can travel 8,000 miles/1300km or more. They’ve been known to gather in large numbers at certain places like the Galapagos Islands and Yucatan Peninsula in summer for a plankton feast.
8. They have thick skin. The hide on their backs can be 4 inches/10cm thick and is covered in hard scales called denticles. They can clench the muscles under the skin to make their skin even thicker. Their bellies, however, are relatively soft so they have been observed to turn their bellies away from human divers.
9. Each whale shark has a unique pattern of white dots behind their gills. In Madagscar, the word for a while shark is marokintana, meaning “many stars”. Hence it’s possible, though not necessarily easy, to recognise individuals. Whale shark experts have teamed up with NASA to make this task easier. NASA has developed pattern recognition software to identify star clusters, called the Groth algorithm, which can be adapted to identify individual whale sharks and try to get a handle on their migration habits. If you’ve ever photographed a whale shark, and captured its dots on film, you might be able to help. ECOCEAN is an Australian organisation which runs the largest whale shark identification programme on earth. If you send them a copy of your photo, along with details of where the images were taken, they can run it through the algorithm to see if it matches any other whale sharks they have on record. If it does, they’ll e-mail you a summary of where else that particular shark has been spotted (so to speak).
10. The Philippine 100-peso bill and the Maldivian 1000 rufiyaa note both feature whale sharks.

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

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