Why the whale shark?

The picture on the header of this blog is a whale shark. There are a few reasons why I chose it. Firstly, they are beautiful and I love them. Secondly, they are named in a very interesting way. The whale shark is a shark, not a whale. But it’s huge (whale-sized) and more like a whale in countenance than a scary shark. So, what would you expect a whale shark to look like? A scary, bitey whale, or a big, whaley shark? It’s the kind of name which allows the imagination to run free and could apply to any number of creatures we might create in our minds. Funny how words can do that…