Swimming With Gentle Giant Whale Sharks as They Feed off Isla Mujeres, Mexico on the Yucatan Peninsula

In the gorgeous underwater mini-documentary “There Be Giants”, British filmmaker Simon Spear captured footage of the incredible bounty of life that lies beneath the waters of Isla Mujeres, Mexico. One such visitor to this municipality on the Yucatan peninsula is the whale shark, the largest non-cetacean animal in the world. Despite their enormous size, however, the whale shark poses no threat to the humans who swim with them as they filter feed on bonito eggs from the surface of the water.

The Yucatan peninsula is one of the busiest tourist destinations in the world and every year just offshore from Cancun, the largest fish in the ocean aggregates in vast numbers to feed. This very special aggregation is one of only a handful of such known sites where whale sharks aggregate and it has turned into a valuable ecotourism contribution to the local economy.

via The Kid Should See This