Bone Sharks of the Loneliest Island

Whale sharks, known on St Helena as bone sharks, visit the island's waters each year between roughly December and April. Elsewhere the species gathers as mostly juvenile males, but a peer-reviewed study of the St Helena animals (2013-2019) found 277 individuals in an almost even split of mature males and females, which has led scientists to suspect the island is a mating ground, behaviour never recorded for the species. The St Helena National Trust's marine section, set up in 2018 with the Blue Marine Foundation, photographs and logs individual sharks each season and runs a free ID app so islanders and divers can submit sightings. Researchers had identified more than 360 individuals by 2025, including a regular visitor nicknamed Snowflake seen every year since 2012. The work sits inside a marine protected area of about 445,000 square kilometres around the island.