Video: Whale shark caught in fishing net, what happened next
Fishermen in Khor Fakkan have close encounter with ‘gentle giant’
Khor Fakkah, Sharjah: Fishermen here saved a whale shark after the “gentle giant” was tangled up in a fine-mesh fishing net.
The rescue took place around 8am on Thursday (February 9, 2023).
A video of the incident shows a number of local fishermen trying to free up the 10-metre whale shark and then guiding it from the shore back to the open sea.
Local environment authorities said the whale shark isn’t harmful and holds many records for size in the animal kingdom.
These huge creatures can grow up to several metres long — the largest confirmed individual whale shark had a length of 18.8 m (61.7 ft).
The mouth opens up to 1.4 meters wide but it feeds only on krill and plankton. Despite their size, and contrary to popular belief that sharks are ferocious creatures, the biggest of them all is known as a “gentle giant”.