Also, as they swim with their mouths open, they draw masses of water filled with plankton and small fishes into their mouths and through spongy tissues between their large gill arches. After closing their mouths, whale sharks use gill rakes that filter the food from the water. Anything that does not pass through the gills is eaten. Gill rakers are bristly structures in their mouths that trap the small organisms, which they then swallow. Despite their enormous size, whale sharks' diet comprise only of plankton, krill, small fish, squid, and other small invertebrates.
Whale sharks are solitary creatures.
And interestingly, congregations of whale sharks have also been observed to frequent Australia's Ningaloo Reef and our very own Donsol, a fishing village along the Bicol peninsula, some 600 kilometres southeast of Metro Manila. Whale sharks are known to spend most of their time near the water surface. This is also one of the reasons why they easily fall prey to unscrupulous fishcatchers who hunt and butcher them. Some might say that whale sharks are butchered anyway to provide humankind tons of meat and other raw materials for various commercial products. However, people should consider the decreasing population of whale sharks.