Northernmost record of a whale shark Rhincodon typus from the Sea of Okhotsk

Abstract

The whale shark Rhincodon typus is the world's largest fish and it occurs in tropical, subtropical and warm temperate waters. Here, the northernmost record of R. typus is reported, when it was found in the Sea of Okhotsk for the first time. This occurrence can be explained by the unusually high sea surface temperature during the summer of 2012.

Checklist of marine and estuarine fishes from the Alaska–Yukon Border, Beaufort Sea, to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

“…north of Hokkaido Island, Japan (Tomita et al 2014); Patrick's Point (41°10'N, 124°15'W), northern California to northern Chile and Islas Galápagos (Ebert 2003). Pelagic; depth: descends to in excess of 1,928 m (6,324 ft) (Tyminski et al 2015).…”

A first look at whale sharks in Hawaiian waters: Using citizen science to study the world's largest fish, Rhincodon typus

“…This Endangered species (Pierce & Norman, 2016) has a circumglobal distribution in tropical and warm temperate seas where it can be found in both pelagic and coastal habitats. While typically found in waters ranging from 30 N to 35 S, opportunistic reports of whale sharks have been documented as far north as the Bay of Fundy (44 N) on the south-eastern Canadian seaboard (Turnbull & Randell, 2006) and the Sea of Okhotsk off northern Japan (44 N; Tomita et al, 2014), and as far south as Victoria, Australia (37 S; Wolfson, 1986). Whale sharks are highly mobile and have been tracked through satellite telemetry to travel between 10-30 km per day (e.g.…”

Annotated checklist of the sharks, batoids and chimaeras (Chondrichthyes: Elasmobranchii, Holocephali) from waters of Russia and adjacent areas

“…The closest occurrence from Russian waters is the Okhotsk coast of Hokkaido Island, Japan (Tomita et al, 2014 (Lindberg and Legeza, 1959;Compagno, , 2001Randall and Lim, 2000;Compagno et al, 2005;Goto, 2008;. Russian area: it is known based on the single specimen (it was caught in 1963) from Peter the Great Bay, Sea of Japan Sokolovsky et al, 2007Sokolovsky et al, , 2011 (Fedorov and Parin, 1998;Compagno, 2001;Ivanov and Sukhanov, 2002;Sokolovsky et al, 2007Sokolovsky et al, , 2011Velikanov, 2010;Dolganov, 2012); probably Pacific and Bering sides of the Kamchatka Nakano and Nakaya, 1987;Myagkov, 1988;Sheiko and Fedorov, 2000).…”