News You Can Bruise for 2002 June 22

Catch of the Day: Today I'd like to tell you about the whale shark (rhincodon typus), the largest extant fish on Earth. It has a distinctive flat head which from the top looks like the head of the sperm whale. Like whales, it eats plankton and gives live birth (!), and is huge. In fact, the only thing keeping it from being a whale is that it's a shark. It lives in tropical waters, and is, if not friendly, at least indifferent to divers. Unfortunately, like many cool sharks, they are endangered.

Whale shark links:

Elementary-school-level discussion of the whale shark

Awesome photos

One awesome photo

The "Whale Shark Trilogy", which is in Thai and I can't read it (though I can see the characters; thanks, Mozilla!)

Joe and the Whale Shark