Having spotted a large number of Whale sharks on the coast of Gujarat in India, the State Forest Department is looking forward to develop whale shark tourism in Gujarat by implementing the Australian system of locating sharks using airplanes and expert spotters in the sea.

Principal Chief Conservator of Forests of Gujarat, Mr. Pradeep Khanna along with representatives of the Wildlife Trust of India recently went to Australia to gain knowledge about satellite tagging of whale shark and the process of developing whale shark tourism back here in India.

Mr. Khanna appreciated the Australian concept of Satellite tagging of sharks for the purpose of conservation and nurtures a strong desire to train Indian pilots and spotters for the same. He also plans to kick-start a lucrative process of whale shark tourism in Gujarat by guiding tourists to the areas located by spotters as places most frequented by sharks.

With Australia showing a brotherly concern of assisting India in developing a similar trend of Whale shark conservation through Satellite tagging and a flourishing process of whale shark tourism; what now worry the minds of conservators is an effective plan of going about it. There lie two options of either bringing in experts from Australia or sending Indians to Australia for the purpose of being trained as expert pilots and spotters.

The Whale Shark being a rare species needs to be saved from the hands of hunting fishermen through continuous awareness campaigns instead of vain policing. Though much has been done yet a lot more remains to be achieved.

Now with the Union environment ministry giving its affirmation on the satellite tagging of sharks and collection of tissue samples for their genetic analysis, the conservation plan is just about to progress soon, though much needs to be done yet to attract tourists and inspire whale shark tourism.