Whale shark facts

A four-metre whale shark found struggling in Jebel Ali waters has been shipped to large tanks at Atlantis, The Palm. Here are some whale shark facts:

• The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations says the whale shark is “by far the world's largest fish''.
   
• The FAO describes the Whale shark as a species whose “maximum total length (is) uncertain, possibly to 18 metres, but specimens rare above 12 m; 13.7 metres is often given as the maximum measured, 12.1 metres the most recently accurately measured. Most reported in the literature are between 4 to 12 metres. Females of 438 to 562 cm are immature.''
   
• The FAO says the Whale shark is under threat in some areas of the globe.
   
• The IUCN Red List considers the whale shark a Data Deficient species worldwide (Camhi et al. 1998). However, the apparent decreasing catch rates in some of the fisheries outlined above suggest that whale sharks, like most elasmobranchs, are susceptible to overfishing when exploitation runs unchecked.
   
• Whale sharks are currently protected in several parts of the world: in Australia (Western Australia); The Maldives; The Philippines, and in the USA (Florida state Waters and all federal waters of the Gulf of México and Atlantic coast),'' the FAO states on its website.
  
  For more details, log on to the FAO website at: www.fao.org/fishery/species/2801/en