Swimming With Whale Sharks

People love the whale shark. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that it's the largest fish in the ocean. Or, maybe that's because it's such a gentle creature. Despite its size, the whale shark is harmless to humans. Employees at the Georgia Aquarium acknowledge that the whale sharks are among the most popular fish on display.

With all of the adoration that humans heap on this huge fish, it's no surprise that we get up close and personal -- literally. Scuba diving and snorkeling with whale sharks has become a popular new trend in the eco-tourism and adventure travel sector. One whale shark hotspot is the Ningaloo Reef, located off the west coast of Australia. Another is Donsol, Philippines, a small fishing town 375 miles (604 kilometers) from Manila. Every year during feeding season, more and more tourists flock to these destinations to swim with the largest fish in the sea.

Scuba diver and whale shark
Jeff Rotman/Getty Images
Divers swimming beside a whale shark (Rhincodon typus) at the Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia.

From January to June each year, whale sharks migrate to Donsol to feed in the plankton-rich waters. In 1997, tourists got wind of the influx of whale sharks and began swimming with them. Word-of-mouth popularity put Donsol on the map. In 1998, roughly 900 tourists visited during the whale shark season. By 2005, that number grew to more than 7,500. But growth like this in such a small town sometimes causes problems. The bridge leading to the staging area for boats trips can accommodate just one car at a time -- not good when you have 7,500 eager divers on your hands. There are now five small inns on what was once an empty beach, but these modest hotels don't come close to accommodating everyone.

Written in the stars
The whale shark's pattern of light colored spots and stripes are believed to be unique to each fish. If this is true, then researchers would be able to identify each whale shark if they had a database of the shark's spot patterns. It seems like this may be the case, and three very smart men are leading the research with an unusual twist -- they use an astronomy computer program to identify the sharks.

Brad Norman, a marine scientist working for research institute ECOCEAN, began photographing and videotaping the patterns on the backs of whale sharks in Australia. After compiling enough data, Norman teamed up with Jason Holmberg, a computer programmer, and Zaven Arzoumanian, a NASA astronomer, to make sense of it all. Arzoumanian took a program used by the Hubble Space Telescope that recognized patterns in the stars and applied it to the whale shark's spots. After feeding more than 1,500 photographs into the software, the team was able to correctly identify individual sharks over 90 percent of the time. Being able to track the whale shark's migratory movements should give us a lot of information about the feeding habits, migratory routes and whether or not conservation practices are effective [source: Young.]

To keep the rising tourist market in check, the town government has reduced the number of boats permitted to be in the water at one time from 50 to 25. But all is well in Donsol -- the town also benefits from the tourism boom. In addition to 1,000 new seasonal jobs, there's talk of building a larger hotel, a concrete road to the launch point and even a small airport.

Get lots more information about sharks and other sea life by exploring the links on the next page.