The young, 4m-long female was set free from The Palm island’s Atlantis resort.
The whale shark was taken from the sea off Dubai in 2008. Since then, there had been calls for its release.
But according to the Middle East news service Al Bawaba, the Atlantis Fish Husbandry Team had worked “to save the animal in compliance with all CITES regulations” after it was spotted “off the coast in distress”.
The team had then used Atlantis’s rehabilitation facilities to prepare the shark “for return to the ocean”.
The release has been made at a time when “seasonal elements affecting water temperature, salinity and migratory patterns" are at their best "for enhancing her survival”.
The whale shark has been tagged so that it can be tracked as part of a collaborative research project run by Atlantis and Florida’s Mote Marine Laboratory.
Related links
Atlantis, The Palm
Dubai aquarium leak prompts evacuation
Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society
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