'Right place, right time': Whale shark passing by Stuart Beach coast a rare sighting

You'd think it would be hard to miss a whale shark, the largest fish known to be roaming the ocean. But, it turns out the Sunday sighting of one about 40 feet off the Stuart Beach coast was a rarity. 

"I have never heard of one that close to shore," said Gabby Barbarite, outreach director of Florida Atlantic University's Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute in Fort Pierce. 

"It was just the right place, right time. It was amazing, a very lucky sight for sure."

Whale sharks are grey or blue in color, covered with white spots and pale stripes, and can grow up to 40 feet long and weigh 11 tons.

The "gentle giant" of the sea is no stranger to Florida waters, Barbarite said.

Whale sharks are highly migratory, traveling upwards of 4,000 miles on a standard route that spans both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and prefer warmer waters. In the United States, whale sharks can be seen along the east coast from New York to Florida.

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More often than not, the fish are seen by divers or boaters in deeper waters offshore due to their large size, Barbarite said, but there are still only a couple sightings each year in Florida. 

The roughly 25-to-30-foot whale shark passing by Stuart might have been following a current that also carried its food source, plankton, closer to shore, Barbarite said. 

It likely was heading toward the Caribbean, she added. Whale sharks usually gather off the coast of Mexico and Belize from May to September. 

The sheer size of whale sharks shouldn't worry residents, though, Barbarite said. The fish pose no threat to humans and will sometimes have friendly interactions with divers. 

In fact, humans are more of a threat to endangered species through boating or commercial fishing accidents. 

"It’s really cool for residents to realize these sharks do inhabit our waters," Barbarite said.

Catie Wegman is a community reporter who also produces "Ask Catie," an occasional feature to find answers to your burning questions about anything and everything — the more bizarre the better. Support her work with a TCPalm subscription. Contact her at catie.wegman@tcpalm.com and follow her @Catie_Wegman on Twitter and @catiewegman1 on Facebook.