Strapped baby whale shark cruising by
During a dive near Foammulah, some of our divers saw a baby whale shark cruising by, however they noticed that there was something wrong with the shape of his body. When it got closer they realized that it was caught up in a box strap which clearly had been on him for a while as it was preventing his growth and cutting into his flesh.
Somehow our divers managed to get so close that they were able to cut the strap off the little fellow, thus giving him a chance to grow. If the strap had not been taken off his chances of survival would have been slim.
When we contacted the whale shark research team, it appeared that this was a new whale shark and our guests had the pleasure of naming the whale shark and the group agreed on the name of “STRAPLESS”. Pictures below illustrate the whale shark before and after the rescue.