The whale shark lives in the Red Sea and the seas surrounding the Arabian Peninsula.
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The whale shark lives in the Red Sea and the seas surrounding the Arabian Peninsula.
The whale shark occurs worldwide in all tropical and warm temperate seas except the Mediterranean. FishBase lists it from 167 territories and records it as native to all states of the Arabian Peninsula (Saudi Arabia, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Yemen, Kuwait and Bahrain), as well as Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Madagascar, South Africa, Seychelles and Mauritius, and on the coasts of West Africa.
In NAKTASHIF worlds:Marine and coastal habitats
Approved version OWNER-REVIEW-20260930T043435508 · last approved 30 September 2026
Whale sharks aggregate at Shib Habil reef in the Saudi Red Sea, as documented through photo-identification, observation and tracking.
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