32. Gentle Giants
The name whale shark may be misleading, but it is more of a shark than a whale. It is one of three shark species that are filter feeders. The most massive whale shark ever found was more than 60 feet long. The whale shark is the largest living vertebrate that is not a mammal.
It got the name “whale” for being generally docile and its large size. It can get as long as 33 feet, which dwarfs the basking shark, which can only get to about 20 feet long. Due to their gentle nature, diving and swimming with them have become a tourist attraction whenever one is spotted off the coast.