This is the moment a woman swam with a giant whale shark lurking beside their boat.

Footage shows the tourist enjoying dipping in the water as the marine mammal glided beside her in Gorontalo province, Indonesia.

The woman Regina Janet Moningka said: 'He looked so friendly so I jumped into the water and swam with him. He had been tailing our boat so I thought he wanted to hang out.'

Despite their massive size, whale sharks are slow-moving, plankton-feeding creatures and are tame to humans and are completely safe to swim around with.

They are classed as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), with their biggest threats coming from industrial fishing and ocean pollution.