A magnificent whale shark has graced Hong Kong with its presence, offering what environmentalists say is an encouraging sign showing the improved health of the local marine environment.
On Monday morning at around 9am, a fisherman was out on his 20-foot-long boat off the shores of Tung Lung Chau Island, south of Sai Kung, when he spotted what he thought to be a scary shark.
It was a shark indeed, but there is nothing frightening at all about the beautiful, gentle whale shark, the largest fish in the ocean. This creature’s diet consists mostly of plankton and krill, with the occasional small squid or fish.
Once the fisherman realised that the animal posed him no harm, he observed it and took photos for the next half hour before it swam away, reports Headline News.
Classified as a “vulnerable” species by conservationists, the whale shark can reach up to about 13 metres in length and 21 tons in weight.
The last time a whale shark was sighted in Hong Kong was in 2012, according to the World Wildife Fund (WWF), but it was only a juvenile.
Experts are attributing the latest sighting to the success of the trawling ban implemented three years ago. The law meant that local fishermen were no longer allowed to pull fishing nets through the water behind their boats – sometimes dragging them along the bottom of the sea – a technique that WWF says is unsustainable and may cause irreversible harm to marine ecosystems.
The president of the Ichthyological Society of Hong Kong (which studies fish, obviously) believes that the trawling ban has led to healthier fish populations. He predicts that in the future, we’ll be seeing even more sharks in Hong Kong.
Yay for more vibrant, healthier Hong Kong waters!
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