This photo provided by Katsumasa Taniguchi shows the whale shark spotted off the coast of Kushimoto in Wakayama Prefecture on the morning of June 23, 2021.

       GOBO, Wakayama -- A whale shark, the world's largest species of fish, was spotted off western Japan on June 23, drawing the attention of local divers, including one who said it came up to him to play.

       The shark was spotted by the captain of a sightseeing boat about 500 meters off the coast of Cape Shionomisaki in Wakayama Prefecture, the southernmost tip of Japan's main island of Honshu.

       Katsumasa Taniguchi, a 41-year-old diving guide at the dive shop "Marine Stage Kushimoto," headed out to see the sizable fish after hearing about it from the sightseeing boat.

       "It was a small one, only around 5 meters long, but it was near the surface, and it was friendly, not swimming away when I drew close, and came up to me to play," he said.

       Whale sharks live in warm waters, and feed on plankton. Taniguchi said a whale shark was previously seen off the Wakayama Prefecture town of Kushimoto in July 2011.

       (Japanese original by Yoshihiro Yamamoto, Gobo Local Bureau)

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