Huge animals have inhabited the Sunshine State for centuries. From some giant prehistoric sloths that fell into a sinkhole 500,000 years ago to extinct elephants and today’s huge invasive pythons, Florida has always been a biological playground. Its oceans are even home to the largest fish in the world, also known as the whale shark (Rhincodon typus).

Recently, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Independent Fisheries Monitoring program detected whale sharks about eight miles west of Loggerhead Key in the Northern Dry Tortugas Ecological Reserve. They used the Stereo Bait Remote Underwater Video Survey Camera (S-BRUV), which normally observes the conditions of reef fish in the area.

Whale sharks in Floriday

“Whale sharks can be found year-round in Florida waters and may be more common than we currently understand,” says Douglas Adams, a research scientist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. popular science. “They are observed intermittently by recreational or commercial fishermen, aerial surveys, fishery monitoring surveys and other opportunistic methods.”

The largest fish in the ocean, the whale shark, is found in tropical oceans around the world. They are typically 18 to 40 feet long, but can grow up to 60 feet long. It’s as long as a bowling alley or a fishing boat. They also give birth to live babies (like many large sharks) and even their babies come into the world about two feet long. Whale sharks can carry more than 300 embryos at a time.

They are also filterers. They eat by swimming forward through concentrated areas of prey with their mouths wide open. The water passes over or through filtering organs that sift solid foods.

“Whale sharks feed on a variety of zooplankton, small fish, crustaceans and phytoplankton through suction filter-feeding behavior with well-developed gill rakers and specialized modifications,” explains Adams. “They help maintain an effective balance of the plankton and other small marine species they consume, and we have more to learn about their ecological functions.”

There is currently only one known species of whale shark, however there may be a genetic difference between those found in the Atlantic Ocean and those found thousands of kilometers away in the Indo-Pacific Ocean.

“Although they occur in Florida waters, they can certainly move into adjacent waters of the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico,” Adams says. “They can occur singly or in large aggregations. These large aggregations, which may be related to feeding, reproduction or other aspects, can be found off the coast of Mexico, the northern Gulf of Mexico, Western Australia and other sites.”

These groups can range from a few individuals to 420 whale sharks.

Despite their large size, they are completely harmless to humans. However, they are listed as Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species and their global populations are declining. Its main threats are related to fishing, such as getting caught in nets and fins, collisions with boats, human invasion by tourism and climate change.

The use of passive underwater cameras, such as S-BRUV, can help scientists observe, record and quantify whale sharks and determine in which habitats they swim. If you are in Florida and see a whale shark, you can also report the sighting to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to help track them. Having this type of data is crucial to protecting these gentle giants.

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