Whale Shark Shark Bites

My name's Steve Backshall.

Self-confessed shark obsessed.

This is Shark Bites.

Meet the most colossal shark of all - the mighty whale shark.

Not only is this the biggest shark,

but the biggest fish in the whole world.

Reaching record lengths of over 18 metres, which is

longer than a double-decker bus,

they can weigh in at a mighty 30 tonnes.

So, how so they satisfy their equally astronomic appetites?

Mozambique on the east coast of Africa is the perfect

place to find them.

Whale shark.

Wow, look at the size of that! Huge!

-Right, we looking good?

-OK, I reckon. Steve in.

Is there anything more majestic in the world's oceans?

And just as I was revelling in its beauty,

it put on a spectacular show.

HE LAUGHS

He's feeding!

When he's eating like this, you can see that this is actually a hunter.

But what's on the menu may well surprise you.

This gigantic creature consumes tens of thousands of tiny,

microscopic plankton.

Minute plants and animals that float in the water,

but are hardly visible to the eye.

For an animal of this size,

constantly chasing shoals of feisty fish would use far too much energy.

So instead, these colossal creatures cruise around, making the most

of this super-abundant food supply with their mammoth mouths.

Whale sharks are what are known as filter feeders.

Water passes into their enormous mouths

before heading over 20 filtering pads

which separate their plankton prey from the water.

The water continues down and out through the gills,

while the heavier plankton concentrates into a big ball

and is swallowed down into the stomach.

And this plankton soup makes the perfect shark supper.

You know, it's such a huge creature, it's one of the wonders

of nature that all the things it feeds on are so tiny.

The whale shark, with its surprising supper, its mega mouth and

gargantuan size is, without doubt, the most colossal shark of all.