Selling meat of whale sharks is above all in Taiwan sold as "Tofu-Shark" for about US $ 15,-- per 1 kilo - it finds a lucrative market! Taiwanese Seas are already overfished, so the meat of whale sharks has to be imported, most often from India where each year more than 1.000 animals are killed. (source: Unterwasserwelt).

 In Penang (Malaysia), whale shark-massacres have been documented, also in Philippines and waters around Thailand. The governments do nothing against this ongoing slaughtering, as they also benefit from this booming business, and so as a depressing consequence sightings of these magnificent creatures get less and less. So it is not El Nino as often falsly mentioned by official bodies!

  whale sharks are cought with huge nets and brutally messacred by local fishermen They go out during new-moon when the plankton bloom is at its highest. Once a whale shark has been spotted, the fisherman jumps into the water driving a big, cabled hook in the animalīs body. Then the whaleshark gets "drilled" until it is so weak that the fishermen can attach the animal to the bout without further struggle or defence. Then they drive a knife in its spinal cord to immobilise the animal but not to kill, otherwise the several thousand pound heavy animal would sink. Now the fishermen drill holes through the animalīs jaws, to attach floating devices and drag it to shore. After often several hours of dragging behind the boat and suffering the shark gets finally killed, cut into pieces and sold.

 Those following horrible pictures were taken from Jürgen Freund from the Marine Wildlife Photography of the philippines. This pictures must not be used without his explicit permission!