Whale or shark? Whale sharks are called whales because of their immense size but they are fish, not mammal - sharks that do not bite. Anjani Ganase recalls an encounter with a gentle giant.
Even though my job as a marine biologist has allowed me special encounters when working in the ocean environments, the whale shark seemed to be a creature of legends only heard about through chance encounters. Their mystery continued to build in my mind after several occasions of poor timing and missed opportunities where others in the cohort got the opportunity to see what these whale sharks were all about. I resigned to the fact that I probably would never see one, and it was at the moment - as usually happens when you go diving - that I got my first meeting with a whale shark.
We were surveying the reefs off Karimunjawa in Indonesia and as we swam along shallow coral reefs, we noticed a wall of fish cruising towards us. The fish were taking advantage of the slipstream of something massive. It may have been a bow of the ship, but it moved silently - no rumbles of an engine. The large animal heading towards us turned out to be a whale shark - about ten metres in length - and cruised right over us. Before we could catch ourselves, the shark disappeared into the abyss, as quickly as it appeared. Just to give the title 'biggest fish in the ocean' seems unworthy. The reverence that I have for whale sharks solidified in my mind with the need to learn more.
Whale sharks have significance in cultures around the world. They are protected in places such as Indonesia, where they are seen as good luck by the fisherfolk. The largest marine protected area, Cenderawasih Bay, in West Papua, Indonesia, has one of the largest aggregations of whale sharks in the world. Fishermen often fed the sharks bit of bait fish to keep them around. Today, the whale sharks of Cenderawasih Bay are a major eco-tourism draw.
Unfortunately, many of these whale sharks migrate large distances and cross into other national territories that do not afford the same protection. Neighbouring countries such as China actively hunt whale sharks. Even if they are not hunted, the whale sharks often end up as by-catch on fishing vessels because of the indiscriminate methods of catching fish. This is one of the biggest threats to the species. Internationally, whale sharks are a threatened species, meaning that their numbers are declining globally. Like others in the family of sharks, there is high demand for their meat, skin and fins. The whale sharks in Cenderawasih Bay have an estimated economic value of US$2.4 billion, significantly more than what they fetch when caught and killed. The scheme to protect whale sharks and develop eco-tourism around them has also brought success to the fishing town of Oslob, The Philippines. The project shifted fisherfolk to eco tour guides. Even though the fishermen never hunted whale sharks, scientist claim that the shift in the jobs built the economy and improved food security and cons
