While the rest of America scarfed down an estimated 200 million turkeys yesterday a small but growing festival in India "Whale Shark Day" gathered crowds again for the 4th year in a row.

As part of an ongoing effort to protect Whale Sharks in India and build on shark tourism as a bridge solution to sustainable shark management and preservation-this program bears watching by the international community.

As far as we are aware this is one of the first programs we have seen that is successfully attempting to transform a local economy away from fishing and into sustainable tourism with sharks. In 1972 the Whale Shark was placed in the Indian Wildlife Protection Act.

Editors Note: Our heartfelt condolence the people of Mumbai at this time.