Camera Tags Show Whale Sharks Use Multiple Feeding Behaviors from Surface to 70 Meters

Researchers attached camera tags to whale sharks at Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia, recording high-resolution movement data and video of the front half of each animal for 24 hours before the devices detached automatically. The tags captured footage from the surface to depths of 70 meters and allowed scientists to define 36 distinct behaviors after reviewing more than 100 scientific publications.

The study found that whale sharks employ multiple feeding strategies throughout the water column, with most time spent on six low-effort behaviors.

The animals spent most of their time performing six low-effort feeding behaviors, including gliding slow feeding by sinking to the seafloor with an open mouth and active surface feeding by vigorously swimming after krill swarms. Whale sharks displayed a wider variety of foraging strategies than other filter-feeding megafauna such as basking sharks and whales.

The research was published in the journal Marine Biology.

The work was conducted at a tropical coastal gathering site for juvenile whale sharks. Christine Barry, a PhD candidate at Murdoch University and the Australian Institute of Marine Science, and Luciana C. Ferreira, a research scientist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science, led the study.