There are certain expectations and behaviors expected when humans enter natural wildlife spaces. For example, maintaining a safe distance from wildlife.
These guidelines, however, failed to resonate with a group of tourists in Bali who were caught intentionally provoking a whale shark. The video, shared by TikToker Joey (@atravellingjoey), has garnered over 100,000 reactions from viewers.
“Tourists when seeing the most incredible marine life,” the video’s embedded caption described, showing the loathsome behavior.
The first few seconds of the clip show a whale shark swimming near the feet of a large group of snorkeling tourists. The following clips show the same whale shark attempting to swim away from the crowd, but to no avail. Some of the tourists swim incredibly close to it, attempting to grab its fins, while others are close enough to push off of, and even kick, the large sea mammal.
“Maybe like … don’t touch the animals?” Joey wrote in the video’s caption.
Touching and provoking wildlife is reckless. It can cause stressful and defensive behavior in wildlife that can threaten both humans and the animals.
In a national park in Australia, tourists experienced this firsthand when they snuck up too close to an emu, which felt threatened and began charging. In China, tourists who poked fun at cows saw the cows turn defensive and attempted to trample nearby tourists.
While whale sharks aren’t known to be aggressive creatures, they are still found in environments with inherent safety risks.
Maintaining a safe distance from marine life protects both humans and wildlife from stressful interactions, allowing for a harmonious coexistence.
However, as seen in this viral TikTok clip, the whale shark in question appeared visibly distressed trying to avoid the large crowds of humans.
“She looks so overwhelmed,” one commenter noted, referencing the whale shark in the video.
“The disrespect,” another user commented in disbelief.
“This should be illegal,” a third commenter wrote.
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