{"id":12182,"date":"2024-08-31T12:02:41","date_gmt":"2024-08-31T06:32:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=12182"},"modified":"2025-03-30T07:50:54","modified_gmt":"2025-03-30T02:20:54","slug":"whale-sharks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/whale-sharks\/","title":{"rendered":"Whale Sharks"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>About Whale shark:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It is the <strong>largest fish in the world<\/strong> and the largest fish known to have lived on this planet.<\/li>\n<li>They are one of only three species of filter feeding sharks.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Distribution:<\/strong> They can be found in <strong>all temperate and tropical oceans<\/strong> around the world, except the Mediterranean Sea.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Appearance<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>They are <strong>dark gray on top<\/strong> and light underneath, with a series of light spots or stripes covering the dark parts of their bodies. This helps to <strong>camouflage <\/strong>them as they swim.<\/li>\n<li>Unlike most shark species, its <strong>mouth<\/strong> is <strong>located at the front<\/strong> of the <strong>head <\/strong>(terminal) instead of the underside of the rostrum (subterminal).<\/li>\n<li>They are <strong>filter feeders<\/strong> and can neither bite nor chew. They can process more than 6,000 litres of water an hour through their gills.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Inside the mouth are specialized flaps <strong>called velums<\/strong>. These stop the backflow of water as the whale shark closes its mouth, preventing the loss of food.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Food Habit:<\/strong> They feed on <strong>plankton<\/strong> and travel large distances to find enough food to sustain their huge size, and to reproduce.<\/li>\n<li>They also eat small and large fish and mollusks, including sardines, anchovies, mackerels, squid, and even small tuna and albacore.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Conservation Status:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>IUCN:<\/strong> Endangered<\/li>\n<li><strong>Wildlife Protection Act 1972:<\/strong> Schedule I<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Threats:<\/strong> The whale sharks continue to face challenges primarily due to <strong>bycatch<\/strong> and accidental <strong>capture in fishing nets<\/strong>, illegal hunting and habitat degradation.<\/li>\n<li>A global study indicates that over the past 75 years, the world\u2019s whale shark population has decreased by 50%.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1: What are Cetaceans?<\/h3>\n<p>Cetaceans are a group of marine mammals that include whales, dolphins, and porpoises. They are well-adapted to life in aquatic environments and have a variety of unique features that enable them to thrive in the ocean.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/energy-and-environment\/international-whale-shark-day-saving-the-gentle-giants-of-the-sea-along-the-indian-coast\/article68579871.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">International Whale Shark Day: Saving the gentle giants of the sea along the Indian coast<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whale shark  is the largest fish in the world and the largest fish known to have lived on this planet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":12183,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12182","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}