The largest of all sharks and fish bigger than exists, the whale shark is one of the most dramatic views of the ocean. Its great size, its distinctive patterns and their big mouth front do so immediately recognizable and can be commonly seen wandering near the surface waters in tropical and subtropical regions around the world.

The whale shark inhabits the world's tropical and warm-temperate oceans. While thought to be primarily pelagic, seasonal feeding aggregations of the sharks occur at several coastal. The whale shark is solitary and rarely seen in groups unless feeding at locations with an abundance of food. Males range over longer distances than females (which appear to favor specific locations).

As a filter feeder, it has a capacious mouth, which can be up to 1.5 meters wide and can contain between 300 and 350 rows of tiny teeth. It has five large pairs of gills. Two small eyes are located towards the front of the sharks wide, flat head. The body is mostly grey with a white belly; three prominent ridges run along each side of the animal and the skin is marked with a "checkerboard" of pale yellow spots and stripes. These spots are unique to each whale shark and because of this they can be used to identify each animal and hence make an accurate population count. Its skin can be up to 10 centimeters thick. The shark has a pair each of dorsal fins and pectoral fins. A juvenile whale shark's tail has a larger upper fin than lower fin while the adult tail becomes semi-lunate (or crescent-shaped). The whale shark's spiracles are just behind the eyes.

The whale shark is a filter feeder, one of only three known filter feeding shark species (along with the basking shark and the mega mouth shark). It feeds on phytoplankton, macro- algae, plankton, krill and small nektonic life, such as small squid or vertebrates.

They are ovoviviparous. The eggs remain in the body and the females give birth to live young, which are 40 centimeters to 60 centimeters long. It is believed that they reach sexual maturity at around 30 years and the life span has been estimated to be over 100 years.

This species, despite its enormous size, does not pose any significant danger to humans. Divers and snorkelers can swim with this giant fish without any risk.

The population is unknown and the species is considered vulnerable by the IUCN.