Whale sharks are filter feeders that eat large amounts of tiny prey such as plankton, small crustaceans, and schooling fish. They have a five-foot wide mouth with filtering pads inside that allows them to feed by sucking in mouthfuls of water and straining out the prey. Despite their large size, whale sharks have tiny teeth that can only eat small shrimp, fish, and plankton. They supplement their diet with larger prey such as squid or small fish including sardines, small tunas, and anchovies. Although they have about 300 rows of teeth and about 3,000 tiny teeth in total, whale sharks cannot accurately chew large fish. They use their tiny teeth to eat small food, as well as their gill rakers (which acts as a suction filter) to help them thrive as filter feeders. Whale sharks are known to eat a lot, even though they cannot bite or chew their food. They spend nearly eight hours a day gulping around 10,000 gallons of ocean water. Scientists have also observed whale sharks eat while “standing up” in areas with a lot of prey, like large schools of anchovies or other small fish.