[Coral-List] whale shark encounter

[Steve Mussman]

While diving off Panama City Beach, Fl with students
this past weekend, we had an unexpected encounter with
an extremely amicable whale shark. I'm wondering if
anyone can direct me to information pertaining to 
frequency of sightings of this species in this area.
Are there federal or state guidelines relating to
whale shark-diver interactions? This particular fish
seemed to seek contact and repeatedly returned to 
initiate interaction. 

Regards,
Steve Mussman