Scientific Name:    Rhincodon typus         
Nomenclater:    Smith, 1828
Family:    F015  Rhincodontidae
Holotype-Locality:    Table Bay and South Africa
Habitats:    Ocean、Deep Sea、Coastal、Lagoon      
Economic Fish:     Yes
Habitats Depth:    2 - 1000 M      
Aquarium Fish:     No
Poisonous Fish:    No      
Edible Fish:     Yes
Synonyms:    Micristodus punctatus, Rhicodon typus, Rhineodon typus, Rhiniodon typus, Rhinodon pentalineatus, Rhinodon typicus  
Reference:    Compagno, L. J. V., 2001. FAO species catalogue. Sharks of the world. 2ed vol.2 Zhu, Y. D. and Q. W. Meng et al., 2001. Fauna Sinica. Chondrichthyes. 552 p. Shen, S. C. . (ed.), 1993. Fishes of Taiwan. 960 p. Last, P. R. and J. D. Stevens, 1994 Sharks and 
Redlist Status:    IUCN Redlist: Vulnerable(VU)  
Common Name in Engulish:    Whaleshark; Whale shark; Basking shark
Chinese Name transliteration:    jing jiao, jing sha, dou fu sha, da han sha
Distribution in Taiwan:    East、South、PonFu、Greeb IS.  
Distribution in World:    global
Max Lenth:     2000 cm
Specimen List:     ASIZP0058275. FRIP00942. mnhn2003-2144. ROM70377. SIO96-81.         
Characteristic:    A very large shark with cylindrical or moderately depressed body. Head very broad and flattened, with 5 large gill slits, the posterior 3 over the pectoral-fin bases; no gill rakers but filter grids of transverse bars and lobes across the internal gill slits; spiracles much smaller than eyes; nostrils with short, quadrate anterior nasal flaps, minute barbels, and shallow nasoral grooves; no nictitating eyelids; snout extremely short, truncated ; mouth nearly subterminal, very wide, transverse and short, not reaching backward to eyes; teeth very small and extremely numerous, similar in both jaws, not bladelike and with hooked cusps. Two dorsal fins, the first with rear 1/3 of base over pelvic-fin bases, the second less than half the size of first; anal fin present; caudal fin asymmetrical, crescentic, with a strong lower lobe but no subterminal notch. Caudal peduncle depressed, with a strong keel on each side continuing forward onto the back and over the gill slits as a small ridge and flanked by 2 additional ridges above; upper precaudal pit present. Colour: a unique checkerboard pattern of white or yellow spots, horizontal and vertical stripes on a grey, bluish, reddish or greenish brown dorsal surface, abruptly white or yellowish on the underside of the body.
Habitats:    This is by far the world’s largest fish-like vertebrate, with an uncertain maximum size. Maximum total length at least 12 m; possibly 17 to 18 m or even 21.4 m. An epipelagic and neritic, oceanic and coastal, tropical and warm-temperate pelagic shark, oft
Distribution:    Circumglobal in the tropical and warm temperate Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, oceanic and coastal.
Utility:    The whale shark was formerly of limited interest to fisheries worldwide, but recently became the subject of a high value fishery off Taiwan and the Pilippines for fins, flesh, and other products. Captured in gill nets and sometimes in trawls, and often ha

Text and images are provided by The Fish Datebase of Taiwan (Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taiwan)