Whale Shark in Nosy Be

Despite their impressive size, it only feeds microscopic organisms called zooplankton: tropical krill, tuna eggs, fry, crab larvae, etc.

Whale sharks are completely harmless to humans since they are part of the filtering sharks (like the basking shark). It opens its mouth wide and a system of filters at the level of the gills allows it to capture these small prey.

He can thus filter up to 600,000 liters of water per hour, and his energy needs force him to eat up to 140kg of zooplankton per day, the equivalent of 8kg of chocolate!

Whale sharks are sharks.

They take their name from whale sharks because of their gigantic size, but also because like whales, they filter water to extract tiny prey.

These are ovoviviparous fish, which means that females fertilize eggs that hatch inside the mother's womb. Thus, in 1995, a female accidentally caught off the coast of Taiwan, kept 304 small sharks (between 40 and 60 cm) waiting to be expelled!

At Nosy Be, we see them mainly on the surface because they go up for food, attracted by the noise generated by the schools of bonito in hunting.

However, thanks to the development of new technologies, it was possible to place a chip on a shark, revealing that it went down to 1928 meters deep! Scientists believe it descends as deep to find food on the high seas.

Il peut réaliser de telles prouesses grâce à sa peau de 30 cm d’épaisseur – la plus épaisse du monde animal !

Whale sharks are covered with dots and lines called "patterns".

Each individual has their own patterns, and it is therefore through photo identification, following a very precise protocol, that we can distinguish the different whale sharks.

So, after 5 years of study through the Madagascar Whale Shark Project, we have dentified more than 400 different individuals!