I was amazed to come across this video clip of whale sharks feeding from fishermens' nets in Cenderawasih Bay on the coast of West Papua. According to the Sydney Morning Herald:
The whales are resident in the region and the local fishermen have established a relationship with them ... The locals view the whale shark as a good luck omen.
Whale sharks eat a diverse array of zooplankton, including small crustaceans, jelly fish and coral spawn - and easy feeds of fish when they can get them.
There's more at the link.
Here's the video clip. I recommend watching it in full-screen mode.
Amazing! It's almost as if the net is an udder from which the whale sharks feed like calves!
Peter
3 comments:
I do feel I have to correct the herald on something: "The whales are resident in the region and the local fishermen have established a relationship with them".
They're not whales, they're sharks, they got the moniker whale-shark because of their size and feeding style.
Yep, interesting, and I wouldn't be trying to 'pet' one of them... :-)
Good, because their skin is really sensetive, and just touching them can harm it.
They are the gentle giants. I'd trust a whale shark over an actual whale any day. They are among the safest animals you can swim/snorkle/dive with, completely non-aggressive. If you attack them, they flee. The only possibly harmful thing is swimming too close to the tail and getting an accidental slow slap from it.
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