Unusual Whale Shark Spotted Off the Texas Coast In a Classic Tale of Fish Out of Its Waters

When a charter fishing boat left the dock and ventured a few miles off the Texas coast, they couldn’t have known that they’d get to see a “bucket list species” that day. But Alexus Broome and Addison Smith, two crew members with Gulf Magic Fishing in Port Aransas, Texas spotted a whale shark swimming just below the surface in shallow water.

Whale sharks are the largest shark in the world, often getting to 40 or 60 feet as adults. Broome estimated this shark closer to 20 or 25 feet, a juvenile. It was still significantly larger than any shark they would expect to see in this area.

The boat was operating just 6 miles offshore. They first noticed a dark spot in the water and decided to take a closer look to figure out what kind of marine life they were seeing. When they realized it was a whale shark, easily recognized by its white spots, they quickly grabbed cameras to capture it on video. Fortunately for us, they got amazing footage of the shark swimming with other fish around it. The shark only stayed near the surface for a minute or two before it went down deeper and out of view.

Where Do Whale Sharks Live?

Whale sharks typically stay near Mexico, Belize, South America, Thailand, and Australia. That makes this wildlife sighting even more unusual. What was this shark doing so close to the coast near Texas? While we have spectacular footage, we’ll likely never have the answer to that question.

One of the biggest criteria that these animals use to choose comfortable living conditions is water temperature. They prefer warm, tropical waters. They do migrate annually and its possible that this younger shark made a wrong turn somewhere in its travels. It doesn’t seem too concerned. Whale sharks tend to travel on their own so seeing a solitary one swimming isn’t unusual.

Whale sharks have a reputation for being curious. It’s not very surprising that this shark wanted to check out the charter fishing boat to see what it was. Unfortunately, this means that they often get injured or even caught, which negatively impacts the population of whale sharks left in the wild. Gulf Magic Fishing wisely kept their interaction to video footage and let the whale shark swim away safely without interfering with it.

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