In-water observations highlight the effects of provisioning on whale shark behaviour at the world's largest whale shark tourism destination.

Abstract

The whale shark is the world's largest fish that forms predictable aggregations across its range, many of which support tourism industries. The largest non-captive provisioned whale shark destination globally is at Oslob, Philippines, where more than 500 000 tourists visit yearly. There, the sharks are provisioned daily, year-round, allowing the human–shark interaction in nearshore waters. We used in-water behavioural observations of whale sharks between 2015 and 2017 to understand the relationship between external stimuli and shark behaviour, whether frequency of visits at the site can act as a predictor of behaviour, and the tourist compliance to the code of conduct. Mixed effects models revealed that the number of previous visits at the site was a strong predictor of whale shark behaviour, and that provisioned sharks were less likely to exhibit avoidance. Compliance was poor, with 93% of surveys having people less than 2 m from the animal, highlighting overcrowding of whale sharks at Oslob. Given the behavioural implications to whale sharks highlighted here and the local community's reliance on the tourism industry, it is imperative to improve management strategies to increase tourist compliance and strive for sustainable tourism practices.