On Sunday morning, January 18, 2026, scuba divers from Dive Adda spotted a whale shark near Chinna Rushikonda, Visakhapatnam. The group included instructors and two students returning from a routine dive. The whale shark, the world's largest fish and on the IUCN endangered list, was about 10 metres long. Divers saw the calm giant following a school of fish underwater. Bhadram Rasamsetty, Dive Adda's founder and former naval officer, said it was their first close whale shark sighting in these waters. Dive instructor Vysakh Sivarajan noted, "It was about 100 m from the coast and appeared unperturbed by our presence. We could view it for about five minutes before it moved gracefully, disappearing into deeper waters." Though whale shark strandings have occurred off Visakhapatnam in the past, live sightings at sea are very rare.