I have seen this erroneously answered at a few inches which is false. The whale shark has the ability is constrict the esophagus to keep water out and hold food in the stomach. Water is pushed into the huge mouth at great force and then forced through tubes out of the gill flaps allowing the massive amounts of food to be swallowed. Depending on the size and age of the fish it can vary. The notion that the esophagus is to small to swallow large amounts is false. This article shows that huge volumes of food are swallowed with each mouth full. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/pdfs/Sharkfeedingpaper.pdf this site tells you all you need to know about the whale shark esophagus, mouth size, and how much it can swallow.
Anatomical measurements indicated maximum internal mouth
width was 12.0% (N = 8), and mouth height 6.3% (N = 10) of TL, and
the open mouth width to height ratio was 1.9 (N = 10). Internasal
width was 10.0% of TL (N = 11), and vertical mouth height/internasal
width was 0.61 (N = 11). Based on open mouth internal heights, the
estimated total open mouth area was 2035 cm2
for shark A (622 cm
TL), 1841 cm2
for shark B (593 cm TL), and 1079 cm2
for shark C (443 cm TL) (N = 4 frontal pictures of feeding sharks).whale shark swimming at 1.1 m/s.
The biomass ingested was estimated by calculating the volume
of water passing through the partially submerged mouth per unit time multiplied by the mean biomass of plankton per unit volume. With an average of 84.7% of the open mouth underwater during
surface ram filter feeding, a 443 cm TL shark would present an open
mouth area of ∼914 cm2
(84.7% of 1079) and a 622 cm TL shark
an open mouth area of ∼1724 cm2
(84.7% of 2035) to the water.
With a flow velocity at the mouth of 0.99 m/s (90.4% of 1.1 m/s) the
smaller shark would filter 0.0914 m2
× 0.99 m/s or 0.0905 m3
/s of
water = 326 m3
/h, and the larger shark would filter 614 m3
/h. With
an average plankton biomass of 4.5 g/m3
at the feeding sites, the
sharks would, on average, ingest 1467 and 2763 g of plankton per
hour, respectively, and for an average feeding time of 7.5 h per day,
a total of 11,003 and 20,723 g of plankton/day, which at 1.357 kJ/g equates to 14,931 and 28,121 kJ per day, respectively.....
4.9 feet.
The whale shark is currently the biggest fish alive in the ocean, and he only eats plankton. Since he's so big, he needs to eat alot plankton, so he has a big mouth to swallow all of it at once.
They have shark tails. If they have shark tails then they'd be catagorized for a shark. They are called a whale shark because their big like a whale and shark because it is a shark (tail)
Yes. There all called the blue whale. And also there all the biggest mammals on earth, somebody has just described them as big.
It depends on how big and how old the whale shark is. :)
The whale shark
Because it is big like a whale.
The biggest shark is the whale shark
like a big overgrown shark
A whale Shark is a Shark, but big as a whale. As a Shark, it has the characteristics of a fish. Breathes with gills etc. Whales are marine mammals. Breathes with lungs, live birth, nurse its Young etc.
The whale shark is a filter feeder, it lives on tiny, tiny shrimps. It really doesn't have any teeth.
whale weighs more than 100 tons, the shark weighs about 2,000 kg.
Whale Sharks are Sharks, but big as some whales.