Whale sharks are the worlds largest fish, facing welfare threats from unregulated tourism encounters, ship strikes, and targeted fishing in some regions.
Unregulated tourism involves swimmers touching, riding, and harassing whale sharks causing acute stress and potentially chronic avoidance of feeding sites. Boat propeller strikes cause serious injuries at aggregation sites. Targeted fishing causes traumatic death. Longline bycatch in tuna fisheries causes drowning. Predictable aggregation at feeding sites makes whale sharks vulnerable to repeated disturbance.