Naming Every Whale Shark in the Maldives

Maldives Whale Shark Research Programme (MWSRP) is a Maldivian-registered charity whose research in South Ari Atoll helped establish the South Ari Marine Protected Area in 2009, the only place in the world where juvenile whale sharks gather year-round. Through its citizen-science Big Fish Network, MWSRP trains dive guides and resort staff across the Maldives to photograph whale sharks' unique flank markings and log encounters into a shared database, tracking individual sharks' movement, survival and site fidelity over more than a decade. In May 2025 the network photo-identified its 800th individual whale shark, part of a catalogue built from over 8,000 logged encounters since 2006, including one shark re-sighted more than 380 times over 14 years. The programme also runs volunteer research expeditions and studies the multi-million-dollar whale shark tourism economy to inform sustainable tourism policy.