The whale shark is both, the biggest shark and fish in the entire world. In turn, a captured shark can bring in big money on the international market due to its special status. This is just one of the many reasons why this gentle giant is very much in danger of becoming extinct. Hence, your help as a volunteer is much needed in order to save whale sharks. If you are interested in making sure that these huge creatures of the sea do not die out anytime soon, you can learn more about becoming a volunteer abroad below. We will tell you why these sharks are in danger of becoming extinct and what you can do to save whale sharks. Did you know that these big fishes could be saved around the world? The most popular destinations to swim and volunteer with whale sharks are:

• Mexico
• Belize
• the Philippines
• Tanzania
• Australia
• the Maldives
• Mozambique
• the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
• Thailand
• Indonesia

Even though it might seem that these huge sharks are powerful enough to protect themselves against all kinds of threats, this is not necessarily the case. After all, whale sharks are helpless when faced with modern machinery that is used to hunt them down. As a prospective whale shark conservation volunteer abroad, you should know that shark meat is considered a real delicacy in many parts of the world. The meat is often dried on drying racks before it is served. Given the huge demand for this type of meat, the senseless killing of sharks continues. Even though hunting whale sharks continues to be illegal, this does not stop the unregulated fishing. Sadly, some whale sharks are even losing their lives in the face of the following threats:

• As by catch in case of unregulated fishing
• Accidental capture
• Whale shark tourism

Even though you might have heard that several volunteer opportunities include various ecotourism excursions, whale shark tourism can further put these sharks in danger. Not only can the sharks get injured by the propellers of the tourists boats, but these boats will also interrupt the sharks’ feeding, which hurts these maritime creatures.

One of the goals of whale shark conservation thus needs to be to significantly improve whale shark tourism. After all, this kind of tourism is a significant source of income in several countries. If the local population were to miss out on this tourism money, this might hurt the local whale shark population even more. Given that one of the reasons to protect sharks is that tourists want to see them, even more unregulated fishing might take place once there no longer was any whale shark tourism.

Even better yet, volunteering in whale shark conservation might also mean that you get to swim with these sharks alongside tourists. Hence, one of your jobs will be to educate tourists in terms of the appropriate code of conduct during any such swimming excursions. Apart from this hands-on work, your help might be needed with various research activities or you might be asked to complete data entry and other office-type tasks. This is true no matter where you volunteer in whale shark conservation, although the following regions are particular popular for this kind of voluntary work:

Meanwhile your voluntary work for a whale shark conservation project, you might thus be asked to help with educating the local communities. If those that offer whale shark tours know what to look out for, then less whale sharks will get hurt in the process. While volunteering, you might even be asked to lead your own guided whale shark tours. Given that most whale shark conservation programs possess extensive knowledge about the feeding and breeding patterns of the local shark population, this also helps protect these animals. This expert knowledge about whale shark movement can be used to avoid often fatal collisions.