The Whale Shark is the World’s largest fish which can reach sizes of 12 meters. Although increasingly rare, Thailand's has several dive sites, at which these awesome creatures can be seen, especially at Richelieu Rock ,  which has become World’s famous for it’s Whale Shark encounters.

The Whale Shark first became known to the scientific world in 1828 ,when a relatively small 4.6 meter animal was caught of the Cape of Good Hope of Africa, and ever since the world has been fascinated with these beautiful creatures.

The Whale Shark is one of the most distinctive sharks, apart from its immense size, they have a huge oval-shaped mouth located at the front of the head, and a two tone pattern of light spots and lines on a dark blue surface with a pale underbelly. Like Manta Ray’s, Whale Shark are filter feeders and mainly on plankton, squid, crust oceans and small fish. When feeding the Whale Shark’s will open their mouths wide in order to filter huge amount of water to find it’s food. As a filter feeder, Whale Sharks pose absolutely no threat to human’s, apart from getting in the way of this gigantic creature.

Regarding breeding, little is known about mating in the wild, as it has never been demented . Male Whale Sharks, like all sharks have a pair of claspers ( a long, cylindrical intermittent organ ) which develop on the underside of the shark near the ventral fins, these clasper's are inserted into the females sexual organs during copulation. For a long time scientists thought that Whale Sharks reproduction was oviparity ( laying egg sacks ), like it’s only close relation the Leopard Shark. But in 1995, a 8-meter  female was harpooned off the coast of Taiwan and was found to contain hundreds of embryo’s, all in different stages of development, some of which had already hatched from their shells, the largest being 70cm long. This discover led to Whale Sharks now being closed as ovoviviparous, like the giant Manta Rays.

Large Whale Sharks only have two main predators, other large sharks, namely Tiger Sharks, and man. For centuries local fisherman in Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and some east coast African countries have hunted Whale Sharks for food, but in recent years  the fishing has become much more widespread, due mainly to the fact of the high demand of shark fins in China and Japan. It has been said that a Whale Shark fin can catch up to $10000 in Chinese and Japanese markets.

• When Whale Sharks are present, enter the water quietly to avoid scarring them.
• When first spotting a Whale Shark, check DEPTH and AIR gauge.
• DO NOT CHASE THE WHALE SHARK, it will leave.
• DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, TOUCH THE WHALE SHARK.
• NEVER RIDE ON A WHALE SHARK.
• BEWARE of getting too close, the powerful tale can be dangerous.
• Avoid following the Whale Shark up and down, keep your depth constant.

Unfortunately I have never been as lucky with my encounters with Whale Sharks as I have with Manta Ray’s. I have seen two Whale Sharks, the first a small 4-meter male at Hin Muang, and the second a large 8-meter female again at Hin Muang. In addition to these sightings I have been at the same dive site, at the same time as other divers had sighted them, but somehow I missed them, just bad luck.

Where Can I see them?

• Richelieu Rock
• Hin Daeng/Hin Muang
• Similan Islands
• Phi Phi Island