Rhincodon typus Click on the picture to see a larger image. As fearsome as this guy looks, he actually wouldn't harm a hair on your head. Whale sharks may have big mouths, but it isn't for swallowing people - they're plankton feeders.
Plankton are microscopically tiny organisms that thrive in the oceans throughout the world.
That's what the shark in the above picture is doing - feeding on plankton. You may not see them in the picture, but he knows they're there. All the water that he takes in to scoop up his meal is simply passed out of his body through his gills, which have sieve-like membranes covering them to filter out the little critters and prevent them from escaping. If you were accidentally scooped up by the whale shark you would find yourself being spit back out through an interesting process called gastric eversion . The whale shark actually turns it's stomach inside out and spits it out through its mouth, ejecting the entire contents.