The footage reveals that whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) spend far more time feeding underwater than scientists realized and that they use a surprising variety of foraging techniques that had never been documented before.
Philip Motta, a professor emeritus of biology at the University of South Florida who was not involved in the study, said the videos provide "very valuable" new information on the variability of whale shark feeding behaviors, which have been poorly documented to date.
Cameras reveal whale shark feeding
Earlier research had hinted that whale sharks spend a lot of time feeding out of view, at varying depths. In a 2020 study, researchers estimated that whale sharks may forage at these depths for up to 20% of the day and feed at the surface for less than 1% of their time.
They deployed camera tags on 10 whale sharks at Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia and gathered more than 22 hours of footage from the sharks' own perspective. They combined that footage with a review of 106 previously published studies to build the most comprehensive catalog of whale shark behavior to date. Ultimately, they cataloged 36 distinct behaviors — 12 were related to feeding, and of those, six had never been recorded before. The findings were published July 21 in the journal Marine Biology.
RELATED STORIESWhale sharks can grow to 60 feet (18 meters) in length. And yet, this enormous fish survives on tiny prey — like krill, fish eggs and plankton — in tropical waters that are notoriously poor in nutrients. The ability to switch between so many feeding techniques may help to explain the long-standing puzzle of how such a large species can survive in these nutrient-poor waters.
"The most important new discoveries could be what these gentle giants are doing when they perform really deep dives," Motta said.
Shark quiz: How much do you know about these iconic ocean superstars?
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