Happy Monday! I have another surprise post from last Wednesday inspired by the Instagram @WildlifeWednesdayChallenge. This is my Whale Shark. The largest fish in the ocean, a whale shark can grow to 40 feet or more in length. The typical yellow school bus children in North America use is around 30 to 45 feet long! This gentle giant is a filter feeder. One of their main food sources, plankton, looks like the inspiration for aliens in movies. Plankton are organisms that cannot swim against the water current or tide. The origin of the word plankton means drifters or wanderers in Greek. They are split into two groups: Phytoplankton (plants) and Zooplankton (animals). Below I have a key of the different plankton I used. (Please excuse the krill’s position. I ran out of space on the Zooplankton and put krill on the Phytoplankton). Each Whale Shark has a unique pattern of dots and the scientists who study them use star mapping programs to identify each one. Sadly, the whale shark is vulnerable. These sharks are accidentally caught in nets (bycatch) and they are still hunted in some parts of the world for their meat and especially their fins. However, they have become more valuable as live tourist attractions and people come to see and swim with them in the wild. Whale Shark Reference Photograph by Dr Simon J Pierce
https://naturetripper.com/underwater-wide-angle-photography/ Zooplankton References https://marinebio.org/creatures/zooplankton/ Phytoplankton References https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/Phytoplankton For more whale shark information check out these links: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/w/whale-shark/ https://oceana.org/marine-life/sharks-rays/whale-shark https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discover-fish/species-profiles/rhincodon-typus/ For More Plankton information check out the link below: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/plankton.html
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Artist and Blogger
I'm just a doodling artist. My current style started in a lecture class at MCLA where I began doodling in my notebooks. Now I've started a new series focusing on animals. Archives
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