5. Whale Shark
The whale shark is a filter feeding shark, the largest known from the fish species. The largest specimen ever encountered is said to have had over 61 feet, or 18 meters, although data isn’t quite reliable since it happened in the 1800s. Aside from that one, there are other claims of large individuals measuring over 46 feet, although the largest confirmed measurement was of 41.5 feet (12.6 meters) and over 12 tons.
Usually, the whale shark can be found in open waters in the tropical oceans and they rarely go in waters below 72 F (22 Celsius). Their mouths are quite large and they have filter feeders, something that’s quite rare, meaning that it’s only available in two other sharks – the basking shark we talked about already and megamouth.
