Maldives Whale Sharks: South Ari’s New Monitoring Project

What is happening with whale sharks in South Ari? In February 2026, IUCN, the Maldives Ministry of Tourism and Environment and Huawei announced a Tech4Nature project for the South Ari Marine Protected Area.

The plan is to strengthen field monitoring and real-time communication, so that managers can better balance whale shark protection with the pressure of a very popular wildlife place.

What is the project meant to change?

South Ari is famous for whale sharks, and the area’s research programme has built a long record of individual animals and sightings. The new project aims to improve how observations and management information travel between the people who work in the protected area.

That matters because good decisions need more than a memorable photo. Managers need to know where animals appear, how people use the water, and whether the rules are followed. Better information can help them respond faster.

Why is South Ari so interesting to study?

A 2026 peer-reviewed study looked at South Ari sightings from 2016 to 2019, together with sea-surface temperature and chlorophyll data. The researchers explored how the amount of nutrients in the water may relate to the sharks’ local seasonal movements.

A seasonal pattern can help explain why sightings rise or fall. It cannot tell a visitor what will happen on a given day. Food, weather, the animals’ own movements and the way people search all shape what gets seen.

The Maldives Whale Shark Research Programme also keeps a photo-identification catalogue. Each shark’s spot pattern helps researchers recognise it, a bit like a natural fingerprint. Long-term records can show repeat visits that a single tour log would never catch.

What technology cannot promise

A monitoring project is not a wildlife guarantee. It cannot make a whale shark appear. It cannot make an encounter ethical on its own. And more data does not prove that pressure on the sharks has fallen.

The useful questions are practical. Do observations reach the people who manage the protected area? Can the information support real decisions? Are visitor rules clear and enforced? Are the communities who live and work there part of the system?

So the story is not “new tech saves the sharks”. A whale shark protection system is only as good as the people, rules and decisions connected to it.

How to be a better visitor

Before you go, check the current local guidance and choose an operator that follows it. Rules can change, so check them locally. In the water, let the animal set the distance. Do not block its path, touch it, or turn a sighting into a chase. Wildlife encounters are unpredictable. Snorkelling with whale sharks should always follow local regulations and experienced professional guidance.

A close photo is not proof of a good encounter. The most useful thing a visitor can bring is patience. Sometimes the whale shark is there. Sometimes the ocean has other plans, and no booking can change that.

To read more, see our whale shark guide, the Maldives page in our Ocean Atlas and our story on South Ari whale sharks and boat propellers.

Questions people ask

Wildlife encounters are never guaranteed and never forced. Ocean Calling works only with vetted, ethical local operators, and every animal is free to approach, or not, entirely on its own terms.