Austin Montero

My team and I were among the lucky few in the world to witness and film astonishing predatory behavior in the legendary whale sharks! Off Mexico's Baja coast, we captured these massive filter-feeders morphing into hunters, attacking schools of anchovy in frenzied feeding events.

In this study, we describe these and other previously unreported whale shark behaviors.

For this study, we aimed to determine if whale sharks are disturbed by human approaches. We observed their behavior when swimmers and vessels approached these giants.

Most whale sharks were indifferent to human interaction but changed their activities more frequently when approached by swimmers than vessels. Additionally, smaller whale sharks tended to avoid interactions with humans, whereas larger whale sharks were more indifferent to human presence.

Lastly, whale sharks that had visited the bay in previous years were less disturbed than those visiting the bay for the first time.