Along the coast of Gujarat, India, a renowned spiritual leader is inspiring fishermen to become guardians of the world’s biggest fish: the endangered whale shark.

When the fishing community here saw their traditional stocks decline, they began to target whale sharks as a new source of meat and valuable oil. The high demand for these products in Asian markets made the sharks lucrative to hunt, and contributed to a steep decline in their numbers. In just 75 years, the worldwide population of whale sharks was cut in half.

In response, the Indian government added legal protections, although the new laws were a challenge to enforce and poaching continued when fishermen encountered these gentle giants out at sea. The Wildlife Trust of India then launched an awareness campaign to teach the community about the sharks and show how to save them if they became trapped in their nets — but by far the biggest shift began when spiritual leader Morari Bapu joined the campaign and spread the message that the whale sharks were like daughters returning home to give birth. His voice led to a change of heart in the local community, and has helped finally turn the community of fishers into a growing army of whale shark conservationists.

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