Dubai: The whale shark spotted swimming close to Dubai Marina on Sunday appears to have escaped after residents said there were no sightings on Monday.
As reported in Gulf News, the fish attracted onlookers when it appeared on Sunday morning and swam close to the barriers at the edge of the pedestrian walkways.
The fish, about five metres long, swam around the bay at the marina for about four hours.
Ania Sikora, a Dubai Marina resident who spotted the whale shark from her 14th floor flat on Sunday, said it was nowhere to be seen yesterday.
"I've been out and we cannot see it and there don't seem to be any crowds out watching it.
"It may have swum out to sea there doesn't seem to be any sign of it here anymore," she said.
Sunday's visit followed two previous sightings of a whale shark in Dubai Marina, one in July 2005 and the other about a year before that.
This week's visitor was probably a juvenile as it only measured about five metres in length, while whale sharks can grow to as much as 15 metres.
Whale sharks, which have the scientific name Rhincodon typus, eat plankton and small fish. They have rows of small teeth and gill rakers in their throat to filter food from the water.
