Tourists attempting to ride whale sharks in South Ari Atoll
17 Jan 2010, 6:22 PM
Mazin Rafeeq
Excessive human interaction with whale sharks in South Ari Atoll could eventually lead to the species leaving the area permanently, the Maldives Whale Shark Research Project (MWSRP) has warned.
“We have reports of tourists touching and even attempting to ride the sharks,” said Adam Harman from the MWSRP.
In June last year the southern tip of the Ari Atoll region, a year long whale shark aggregation site, was declared a marine protected area (MPA). But recently there has been a large increase in the number of tourists visiting the area.
“The whale sharks have attracted more and more tourists to the area. Sometimes there are 25 boats and over 100 tourists swimming around one shark,” Harman said.
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