They remember the humans that take the copepods off!!!

Apparently!

I love that so much

Oh my god

pov: you're a whale shark and this human just swam up to you and you're like "oh fuck, what now" but then they just gave you really good scritches and then swam away??

i'm emotional

whale shark:........well that was uniquely nice?

seriously I'm tearing up at people doing Science that the animals interpret as random acts of kindness

they have so little reason to trust us

I know. It's a really incredible overwhelming bit of information

I really wonder what the shape of the interaction feels like to them - like, clearly it's positive, because they later take actions to encourage it...

I just really wonder sometimes what it feels like to think like a different being

Whale sharks are my favorite and this makes them even cooler, I can't even

onikins whale sharks are even more massively cool than their physical size!!!!