Australia's most extraordinary experience, swimming with the whale shark Image Source: James Morgan

Tourism WA has launched a Facebook campaign to support research into one of the regions unique visitor experiences, swimming with whale sharks.

Tourism WA together with whale shark research and conservation organisation ECOCEAN will call on their Facebook community to support the adoption of a whale shark by ‘liking’ a series of posts.

Tourism Western Australia director domestic marketing Toni O’Donnell said Western Australia’s Ningaloo Reef was one of the places in the world people could swim with these “gentle giants”.

“The annual whale shark migration to Ningaloo is one of Western Australia’s truly extraordinary experiences attracting visitors from around the world,” Ms O’Donnell said.

Ms O’Donnell added that the campaign provides an opportunity for Tourism WA to give back to their dedicated online community while supporting important research in the conservation of these creatures.

ECOCEAN director Brad Norman explained that the spots on every whale shark were different and therefore by obtaining photos submissions of individual whale sharks, the program could follow their movements.

ECOCEAN has created a whale shark photo identification library, and has since catalogued over 41,000 images and received over 18,000 reported sightings from across the globe.

Ms O’Donnell added that Tourism WA would partake in ECOCEAN tagging program in order to provide regular updates to the community.

https://www.facebook.com/ExtraordinaryWesternAustralia