The Female Whale Shark, The World's Largest Fish, Can Live For 150 Years

According to a research that offers a deeper insight into the biology of Earth¡¯s largest fish, whale sharks, males and females, grow at different rates. Females grow more slowly but get much larger than the males.

Researchers tracked the growth of 54 whale sharks over a 10-year period in the vast Ningaloo Reef off Australia¡¯s west coast, where hundreds of these slow-swimming endangered fish migrate annually.

Reuters

Whale sharks of both sexes were found to grow the fastest as juveniles, about eight to 12 inches (20-30 cm) annually.

It was found that males grow slightly quicker than females, being at around 26 feet (eight metres) long after reaching sexual maturity at about 30 years old. Females plateaued at around 14 metres (46 feet) when they reached sexual maturity at about age 50.

Whale sharks may live for 100 to 150 years it is believed. The longest-known whale shark reached about 60 feet (18 metres).

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Reuters

¡°Whale sharks are remarkable in that females have massive litters of pups, up to 300 at one time. Being very large is almost certainly a prerequisite for carrying this many young inside a female¡¯s body,¡± Reuters quoted Australian Institute of Marine Science marine biologist Mark Meekan, who led the research published the journal Frontiers in Marine Science as saying.

¡°Our study provides the first evidence that male and female whale sharks grow at different rates. Previously, researchers had to rely on estimates of growth and age extracted from the vertebrae of dead sharks that had either stranded on shore or been killed by a fishery. Samples were very limited and didn¡¯t cover a very wide size range of animals, confounding attempts to produce reliable estimates of growth patterns,¡± he said.

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Reuters

Whale sharks are filter feeders who swim great distances through the world¡¯s tropical oceans to find enough plankton to sustain themselves.

Further Meekan said, ¡°If it takes many years, 30 or more, for these animals to become mature, there are lots of threats such as hunting and ship-strike that they may succumb to before they get a chance to breed, making conservation strategies for these animals an urgent task.¡±

Keeping ocean health stable for their sustenance is imperative.

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