By Tom Wark

When your body reaches nearly 20-metres long, whale sharks need to be flexible when choosing how best to snare their sizeable meals.

With the help of dorsal fin-mounted cameras and dozens of research papers, scientists discovered the biggest fish in the sea is a keen snacker and has developed several novel ways of securing a feed.

Researchers identified 36 individual feeding behaviours among whale sharks and labelled them “serial snackers” for unusual mealtime habits.

Whale sharks were filter feeders whose prey mostly consisted of plankton and tiny animals like copepods, Australian Institute of Marine Science study lead author Christine Barry said.

“It’s not surprising the biggest fish in the oceans is so food oriented, given they eat some of the smallest prey,” Ms Barry said.

“But what we didn’t realise, is just how many ways they go about it, compared to other large filter-feeding animals like whales.”

Six of the snacking methods observed are believed to be new to science including ‘gliding slow feeding’, where the whale shark sinks with its mouth open to catch prey slowly.

Another new behaviour is ‘dive feeding’, where the shark actively swims straight down to the sea floor, catching as much prey as possible along the way.

Whale sharks are commonly found on the Ningaloo Reef in northwest Western Australia and Ms Barry said the observations in how they feed could explain why they choose to swim in warmer waters.

“Their wide range of feeding strategies … means they can maximise their feeding opportunities across different environments,” she said.

“This flexibility likely explains how they thrive in tropical waters, where food is more scarce and patchy.”

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