https://phys.org/news/2018-07-prey-patterns-whale-sharks-aggregate.html

"Whale sharks are under threat from targeted fisheries and as bycatch and are listed as endangered by the IUCN Red List," says Ph.D. student Aya Hozumi. "However, we have limited understanding of their ecology and life history, which poses a challenge to conservation efforts."

Whale sharks, with lengths surpassing 12 meters, are the largest fish in the world. They feed by opening their mouths to filter the water for tiny fish and floating organisms called zooplankton. Hozumi and her colleagues wanted to investigate whether gatherings of whale sharks each spring near Al-Lith, Saudi Arabia, were due to rising levels of the zooplankton prey during the same season.