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HUWAT KSAFISH Fishes of Saudi Arabia Red Sea and Arabian Gulf An initiative of the HUWAT ecosystem
Family: RHINCODONTIDAE Species index Families Compare with another species

HWT-FISH-0023

Whale shark

Rhincodon typus

(Smith, 1828)

Rhincodon typus
© أسماك من المياه الإقليمية للمملكة في البحر الأحمر — مركز أبحاث الثروة السمكية، جـدة

Species RHINCODONTIDAE Fish Name used in this encyclopedia

Quick facts

Saudi context in this record

Naming evidence

Local names recorded for their geographic scope: evidence that the name is used there, not a published record of biological occurrence.

Saudi territorial waters, Red Sea بهلول · بهلوان

Occurrence records

The encyclopedia holds no published occurrence record for this taxon in Saudi waters yet.

Measurements and characters

Specimen total length total length (TL)

— not recorded in the source

Length of a measured specimen, not the maximum length of the species.

The source does not record a total length for this group.

No source is linked to this value.

Documentation status

documented from a photographed specimen — the source does not measure this group

No source is linked to this value.

Names

English common names

Whale shark

Local names — Saudi territorial waters, Red Sea

  • بهلول Local name Local name, verified — not nationally approved
  • بهلوان Local name Local name, verified — not nationally approved

Local names with no recorded scope

  • قرش البتان Local name draft
  • قرش البلهاء Local name draft

Classification

RhincodonGenus RHINCODONTIDAEFamily OrectolobiformesOrder ChondrichthyesClass ChordataPhylum AnimaliaKingdom

Conservation

No governed conservation assessment is published for this taxon. The absence of a published assessment is not an assessment of low concern.

Distribution

The encyclopedia holds no published scientific distribution records for this taxon.

This section shows source-backed scientific distribution only. Community observations are not listed here and no scientific distribution is inferred from them.

Information not yet documented in this record

These fields are not yet documented for this taxon in the encyclopedia. Their absence describes the record, not the animal.

Scientific sources

أسماك من المياه الإقليمية للمملكة في البحر الأحمر — مركز أبحاث الثروة السمكية، جـدة (2011). ط١ ١٤٣٢هـ/٢٠١١م.
Fishes from Territorial Saudi Red Sea Waters (2017). الطبعة الثانية 1438 H - 2017.
The scientific sources above are the ones cited for the facts, names and identifiers on this page. The platform and founder attribution in the footer is not a scientific source. Community contributions appear with their names and review status. The verification shown beside a value means the register checked the value against its cited source; it is not a scientific approval and not an independent peer review.

Record last modified: 2026-09-12