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WATCH: Lucky resident spots another whale shark in Dubai Marina

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WATCH: Lucky resident spots another whale shark in Dubai Marina

Dubai - The whale shark was apparently spotted by one lucky Dutch resident.

Published: Wed 3 Aug 2016, 11:16 AM

Updated: Thu 4 Aug 2016, 9:05 AM

  • By
  • Yousuf Saifuddin Kapadia

Apparently, the posh locality of Dubai Marina is not only famous among UAE residents, but exotic marine life too.
In recent years, not only sightings of wild animals in cars have been making headlines, but even sightings of whale sharks off the coast of UAE and in Dubai Marina's man-made canal.
Earlier on Tuesday, a Dubai-based Dutch resident spotted a 'baby' whale shark as he was having his breakfast in the balcony.
Talking to Khaleej Times, Pim Bonenkamp said: 'The whale shark I've spotted just in front of my building. I was sitting on the balcony having breakfast and sighted something big in the water. I rushed inside to get my phone to shoot a video. It was 6:50 am.'
Living in Dubai since four years, the program manager at a leading global safety company, seems to be the only lucky one to spot the shark - which he said was around 2-3 meters long, making it a baby whale shark.
Earlier in 2015, another whale shark had came to the 'weekend party' in Dubai Marina.
The mammoth yet sleek visitor seemed to be in love with the sun and surf of Dubai when it played hide and seek with passersby who stopped to take photos and videos.
Residents were pleasantly surprised when they spotted the whale shark in Dubai on a Thursday afternoon. Some of them took to social media to share photos and videos of the visitor.
On being asked whether had he seen that whale shark as well, the 41-year-old Dutch national said that he did not spot it as he had moved to Marina this year in April.
Dubai residents seem to have missed this whale shark sighting as it didn't create the same buzz on social media as last year.
The Dutch national seemed to have an explanation to that: "Not many people observe the Marina at that time, especially in summer time. Few people are running, but normally they don't focus on the water"
Bonenkamp added that the whale shark disappeared towards the sea.
The avid diver is usually diving off the coast of UAE, and has spotted all kinds of exotic marine life, including different kind of rays (marble ray, cowtail ray), stone fish, eel, turtles, black tip reef sharks, nudibranchs, lobster, crabs and even sea horses.
The Dutch national even had a message for people all over the world, which was to avoid littering the seas with garbage as it is killing marine life.
Earlier in July, scuba divers, swimming off the coast of Dibba in Fujairah, were joined by the two unexpected guests - whale sharks.
Although whale shark sightings are not new to the UAE, but they are rare and this recent video, recorded by the divers, gives a closer look a the majestic creatures.
Filmed in early July off the coast of Dibba, the nearly five-minute long video was posted by the divers on the Divers Down UAE facebook page. To date, the video has been viewed over 10,000 times.
Although whale sharks are not known to be found commonly in UAE's waters, the non-threatening creatures have been spotted quite a lot in recent years, particularly in Dubai, with videos of the sharks on YouTube, from 2006, 2011, 2013 and 2015.
In 2008, a four-metre long whale shark, later named Sammy, was rescued from a a lagoon in Jebel Ali and nursed back to health at the Atlantis, The Palm aquarium, Time Out Dubai reported.
Earlier this year, social media was abuzz with reports of a whale shark off the coast of Fujairah. In a video  posted on YouTube, a huge spotted whale shark could be seen caught in the net of oblivious fishermen.
After a lot of frenzy, the aquatic visitor was reportedly released into the sea.



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