We met the remarkable whale shark in Gorontalo, Indonesia, on our month-long journey through Sulawesi. They are the largest fish in the world, yet they feed on the smallest organism in the sea!

These gentle giants are frequent visitors to a small seaside village called Botubarani, which became a tourism sensation after a picture of a whale shark went viral about five years ago. Since then, hordes of tourists have flocked to the little village to swim with whale sharks.

While there are guidelines in place to protect the whale sharks, tourism is harming some of them as increasing tourist activity and feeding threaten their habitat and natural way of life.