A large whale shark taken in the waters of St Helena Island. St Helena sits 700 miles from the nearest land and 1300 miles from the nearest continent. The whale sharks turn up here every summer, the sex ratio is nearly 1:1 and the females arrive pregnant, both very unusual events in the world of whale sharks. St Helena is one of the few places in the world where you can virtually guarantee to swim with whale sharks over 10 metres in length,often in aggregations of 20 and above.