China Central Television (CCTV) reported that a fisherman in the province of Fujian in eastern China caught a “sea monster” that measured up to 4.5 metres in length and weighed almost two tonnes.
The name of the aforesaid fisherman is Cai Chengzh. Mr. Chengzh answered truthfully when asked what he planned to do with his “trophy”: “I hope to sell it for roughly 10,000-20,000 yuan.”
The “sea monster” that Mr. Chengzh captured may be a whale shark, say marine biologists. If it is determined to be a whale shark, Mr. Chengzh won’t be able to sell it because whale sharks are listed as needing protection under Chinese legislation.
The calmest members of the shark family are thought to be whale sharks. They typically inhabit deep, warm seas and only consume plankton.
Get to know this species better.
The largest species of fish now known to exist is the whale shark (Rhincodon typus), a slow-moving carpet shark that feeds on filters. A length of 18.8 metres was recorded for the tallest confirmed individual (61.7 ft). [9] Most notably, the whale shark is by far the largest living non-mammalian vertebrate. The whale shark holds many records for size in the animal kingdom. It is the only living species of the genus Rhincodon and the family Rhincodontidae, both of which are members of the subclass Elasmobranchii of the class Chondrichthyes. It was put into the Rhinodontidae subfamily before 1984 as Rhiniodon.
