Whale Shark Nursery — Mafia Island Tanzania

Mafia Island's shallow coastal waters off the southern Tanzanian coast host one of the Indian Ocean's most reliable whale shark aggregations, with juveniles of two to four metres gathering seasonally around the plankton-rich waters of Kilindoni Bay and the northern reefs in encounters that are intimate, unhurried, and entirely different in character from the famous Ningaloo and Donsol aggregations. The juvenile whale sharks of Mafia tend to remain in specific areas for extended periods — days or even weeks — feeding on zooplankton blooms that develop in the channel between the island and the mainland, allowing snorkellers to swim repeatedly with the same animals and develop a familiarity of encounter rarely possible with this species. The Mafia Island Marine Park — Tanzania's first marine park — protects the reef system that supports the whale sharks, and the combination of reef diving, whale shark snorkelling, and the nesting green turtle population on the outer beaches creates a marine wildlife experience of considerable diversity on a largely undeveloped island. The dhow sailing culture of Mafia — traditional Swahili wooden sailing vessels still used for fishing and transport — provides a distinctive East African maritime aesthetic to the whale shark encounters from which you watch the animals approach. The island's combination of superb snorkelling, traditional culture, and relative absence of mass tourism makes it one of the Indian Ocean's finest wildlife island destinations.