Rhincodon Smith, 1829

Ebert, David A., White, William T., Ho, Hsuan-Ching, Last, Peter R., Nakaya, Kazuhiro, Séret, Bernard, Straube, Nicolas, Naylor, Gavin J. P. & De Carvalho, Marcelo R., 2013, An annotated checklist of the chondrichthyans of Taiwan, Zootaxa 3752 (1), pp. 279-386 : 306-307

Genus Rhincodon Smith, 1829

Whale Shark / Ẩḛé

Rhincodon Smith, 1829: 443 . Type species: Rhiniodon typus Smith, 1828 , by monotypy, as interpreted by the ICZN, 1984 (Opinion 1278).

Rhincodon typus ( Smith, 1828)

Whale Shark / Ẩḛ

Rhiniodon typus Smith, 1828: 2 . Holotype: MNHN 9855 , male 4600 mm TL, stuffed and mounted, Table Bay , South Africa.

Local synonymy: Rhincodon typus: Teng, 1958: 7 , fig. 5; 1962: 72, fig. 19; Chen, 1963: 16; Shen, 1984a: 51, fig.; Chen & Yu, 1986: 120; Chen & Joung, 1993: 48, pl. 4.7; Hsu et al., 2007: 25; Shao et al., 2008: 236; Shen & Wu, 2011: 57, fig.; Hsu et al., 2012: 1595.

Taiwan voucher material: Ten now born juveniles and one skin specimen (ca. 570 cm TL) deposited at NMMB-P.

Remarks: This species is well known in Taiwanese waters; for a review of the history of the fishery see Hsu et al. (2012) and the references therein. Rhincodon typus was a relatively low valued fish species in Taiwanese waters, with an annual average catch of 250–272 individuals, but these numbers declined from about the mid-1980s to less than 10 individuals by 1995.

Conservation status: Vulnerable.