Whale shark tourism generates conservation revenue but also creates welfare risks through boat strikes, feeding disruption, and behavioral changes. Best practice guidelines aim to reduce harm.
Whale shark tourism presents a conservation paradox: it creates economic value that incentivizes local protection, but poorly managed interactions impose direct welfare costs on individual animals. Feeding aggregations, as practiced at Oslob, are particularly problematic — they alter natural behavior, may affect nutrition and migration, and expose animals to chronic boat traffic. Even non-feeding interactions impose costs when dozens of snorkelers crowd a single animal. Best practice guidelines developed by researchers and conservation organizations — enforcing minimum distances, limiting vessel numbers, prohibiting touching, and banning feeding — can substantially reduce harm. Consumer choices about which operators to support play an important role in driving industry-wide improvement.