Distribution and Habitat
Whale sharks are widely distributed in a band around the equator ranging from the latitudes 35 degrees south and 30 degrees north.
Whale sharks are infrequently encountered even though they are present in all the oceans of the world, except the southern, Arctic Oceans and the Mediterranean Sea.
They have been seen around the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, the Eastern Pacific Islands of the Northern Galapagos, Malpelo, Cocos, the Revilligigedo Islands, the Sea of Cortez, Hawaii, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, the Maldives, the Seychelles, western Australia at Ningaloo Reef, the east coast of South Africa, Mozambique, Kenya, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, Comores Islands and along the coast lines of Madagascar.
The whale shark is so infrequently encountered that the pre-eminent whale shark scholar, the late Dr. Fay Wolfson, never had an opportunity to dive with one, and Dr. Eugenie Clark dived for over 20 years before she had her first encounter.
In fact up until 1986, only 320 sightings were recorded in western scientific literature.
Most reported sightings come from fisherman or divers who encounter them sporadically and then usually only solitary individuals.
The whale shark has a pelagic habitat.
Whale sharks appear to prefer locations with surface water temperatures between 21 -25 degrees, where cool nutrient-rich upwellings mingle with warm surface waters of salinities between 34-34.5%. These conditions may well be optimal for the production of the planktonic and nektonic prey upon which the sharks feed.
During the first International Whale Shark Conference held in Australia in May 2005, evidence was supplied by scientists that Whale Sharks spend the majority of their time above 250m with up to 85% spent above 100m and only 30% above 30m.
There was however a variation between different areas with respect to the whale sharks depths during the day as compared to during the night.
Similarly a number of researchers confirmed that this species makes dives in excess of 1000 meters and in the process encounter very cold water.
These deep dives were generally recorded to be relatively short in duration.