Whale Shark Vs Blue Whale

This article is part of the "Who would win?" series, where wild fauna experts dream upwards hypothetical battles betwixt predators (all in the name of scientific discipline).

I is the largest animal known to take e'er existed. The other is a revered predator at the top of its food concatenation. But would a blueish whale and a not bad white shark ever find themselves at odds with each other in the wild?

While such observations of sharks attacking whales are few, nosotros know it does occur. The scars many whales comport throughout their lives resulting from shark attacks are more than than sufficient evidence sharks will have a get if an opportunity arises.

Their fight is about survival – a potentially much longed-for next repast for a shark, and the whale's desperate defence to ensure the next generation's survival. So, which of these impressive marine giants would win?

White sharks have teeth designed to rip flesh. Marcelo Cidrack/Unsplash, CC BY

A grand banquet

At up to 30 metres long and weighing over 100 tonnes, a bluish whale easily outsizes a white shark, which tin can measure perhaps over 6m and counterbalance less than a tonne.

But the blue whale didn't get and then large from killing and eating other large animals such as sharks. Rather, they evolved an efficient way of consuming very large amounts of tiny prey: krill.

They lunge through dumbo patches of thousands, if not millions, of krill, with big, gaping jaws that can open upward to around 80 degrees.

The lunge builds enormous water pressure against their mouth, inflating the pleat-like grooved blubber around their mouth cavity to airship like an accordion's bellows. With this remarkable device, bluish whales can engulf thousands of litres of h2o in ane go.

Instead of teeth, blue whales (forth with humpbacks, and many other whale species) take bristle-like baleen, which strain the modest organisms from the water when their mouth cavity is compressed. This is how blue whales maximise their energy intake while minimising effort.

A bluish whale lunging for krill | National Geographic.

Sharks, on the other hand, are highly specialised noon predators that hunt and capture large animals, such as large fish, seals and ocean lions, and sometimes even dolphins.

They are well designed for this, with streamlined bodies designed for ambush-and-chase manner hunting. They besides accept flexible and extensible jaws and sharp teeth designed to grab and rip flesh.

If a shark could successfully capture a big whale, the winnings would exist one of a grand banquet. After all, what amend meal than the massive source of high energy of the meat and thick, fatty blubber a whale brings!

Indeed, media reports often capture images of sharks lurking around big whale carcasses.

And then, have these carcasses resulted from shark predation? Or take these whales died from an otherwise unknown disquiet, or human impacts such as line-fishing gear entanglement?

A white shark taking a bite out of a dead whale. Shutterstock

A formidable defender

Big sharks are not only hunters, only also scavengers. Growing evidence suggests whale carcasses are an important function of the diets of large sharks. In fact, the fat in whale blubber can significantly increase a shark's metabolism.

With whale meat and blubber an of import nutrient for sharks, why might they not also hunt whales while they're alive? It turns out whales tin indeed become a large and highspeed target.

Blue whales' highly streamlined bodies, withal, take evolved to travel as fast equally 40 kilometres per hr, for as much as an hour or more than. Their speed and endurance make them hard prey to take hold of for sharks.

Sharks employ more than of a sit and wait strategy to conserve energy, and pursue prey over short, fast bursts of speed of up to at least eleven metres per second.

Bluish whales can unhinge their jaw and take in thousands of litres of water. AAP Prototype, Mike Johnson/Australian Antarctic Sectionalization

Just the difficulties for a shark in capturing a blueish whale don't finish with their limited endurance at loftier speed. Unless yous're a large shark, say, over several meters long, you simply may not have sufficient power in your jaws to finer tear off the meat, even if you could keep upwardly with a blue whale.

Another baleen whales, such as southern correct whales that tin accomplish over 16m-long, are less streamlined than bluish whales due to their chunkier, but more than flexible, bodies. For them, a fight rather than flight defence strategy against predators may be taken.

To defend against killer whales, for example, such whales have been reported to grouping together and defend themselves with powerful tail, pectoral fin or head blows at their attackers.

Correct whales accept also been observed taking these strong stances to protect their vulnerable calves. A well-calculated and well-timed tail slap or torso slam may be life threatening to a predator.

Orcas set on a blue whale, and the blueish whale flees | National Geographic.

Only when do the advantages of the predator defence mechanisms that whales have evolved kickoff to wane? The reply is: when the odds are stacked against them.

When a whale is vulnerable – maybe information technology's no older than a few weeks or months, or perhaps it's unwell or otherwise compromised – it doesn't have the same speed and defences of a healthy adult whale.

So which species would win?

Equally true for all things, it is situational. A whale threatened past a white shark could cause harm to its attacker. A blueish whale also has the added reward of loftier-speed endurance to flee if it prefers.

But if the whale is already vulnerable – such as a worn-out and debilitated whale entangled in fishing nets – then persistent and well-calculated attacks that cause the whale to bleed out can result in the shark winning and whale losing.

A humpback whale calf defenseless in a shark net off the Gold Coast in 2018. AAP Image/Supplied by Humane Guild International

There was an interesting case off Massachusetts Bay in the United States in July 2015, when this almost certain destiny was reversed. The brave Marine Beast Entanglement Response team managed to costless a severely entangled humpback whale that had sustained injuries from a 5m white shark.

The fact the entanglement made the whale vulnerable leaves food for idea on our ain office in putting many whales at greater, unnatural take a chance of death – including many in endangered populations already struggling nether man pressures.

I take this story as testament to the compassionate nature of humanity. Only it's also a sobering reminder of the urgent need for us to transition our current harmful practices to ones that are sustainable.