How large is the whale shark?
The whale shark is by far the world s largest fish-like vertebrate. However, it is hard for us to know exactly what its maximum size is. Old eyewitness records, as well as recent tagging studies and whale shark fishers reports, suggest a maximum length of 17 to 18 meters, or perhaps as many as 21.4 meters. Specimens longer than 12 meters are uncommon. Thirty whale sharks reported from South Africa ranged from 4 to 11 meters long. A length of 13.7 meters is often given as the maximum size measured, with 12.1 meters as the most recently accurately measured. In 1925 a whale shark estimated to be 60 feet in length [18 meters] was caught in the Gulf of Thailand, but the largest accurately measured whale shark was a 40-foot, 7-inch [12.2 meter] male caught in Bombay, India, in 1983. Its mouth was 4.5 feet wide [1.14 meters], and its pectoral fins were more than 6.5 feet long [1.98 meters]. The size at birth of the whale shark is between 55 and 64 centimeters. Males are considered immature at
