Whale Shark Alley

The waters off the northwest coast of Saint Helena host one of the most reliable and understudied whale shark aggregations in the South Atlantic, with dozens of individuals gathering to feed on tuna spawn and zooplankton blooms generated by the island's upwelling system from November through May. These are overwhelmingly juvenile males, which are found aggregating here in a pattern that mirrors the seasonal aggregations of Ningaloo and Djibouti, but in near-complete scientific obscurity due to the island's isolation. Diving with the sharks is possible from the island's small fleet of operators, offering encounters in gin-clear 25-metre visibility water with almost no other dive tourism pressure.