Rare whale shark spotted by Niceville family right off the coast of Destin

DESTIN -- A Niceville family doing some trolling Sunday just off the East Pass Sunday encountered a whale shark they're guessing to be 30 feet long. 

They saw the fin about a mile off shore and assumed it was a shark. But as they approached, they realized what they were looking at. 

The whale shark "dwarfed" their 21-foot-boat, according to Kenneth Worley, who was with his wife, Christy, and their 12-year-old son Coleman. 

The Niceville family took videos of their encounter, including underwater shots using a GoPro. RGC Media Inc. helped them compile their footage into one 3-minute video. 

"Oh, that's a whale!," Christy Worley shouts, as they realize what they're looking at. "That's a whale. Look how big it is.

"Oh my God," she says a moment later. "I can touch it. I'm in awe." 

According to Page Koehler, associate aquarist with the Gulfarium Marine Adventure Park on Okaloosa Island, whale sharks can range in size from about 18 feet to 40 feet. 

"They can be the size of a school bus," she said. 

One of their preferred dietary items is plankton, which may have been why this whale shark was cruising just below the surface. 

Kenneth Worley said they were in about 60 feet of water at the time. 

"That's the biggest thing we've ever seen alive in our entire life," he said. 

Koehler said data about whale shark sightings in Northwest Florida is pretty scarce.

"We actually don't know much about them, which is one of the coolest things about them," she said. "They’re kind of like unicorns in this area, which makes it even cooler that it was seen around there." 

That would explain why Kenneth Worley, who has lived in the area for close to 30 years and fished for most of those years, had never seen anything like it.  

"We went over it several times -- length-wise, width-wise," he said. "It was just majestically swimming along." 

The whale shark wasn't alone, though. He had a lot of remora along for the ride, and was swimming with dolphins and what the family later identified as large cobia. 

His wife was "beside herself," he said. And their son?

"When he stops talking, you know something has his attention," his dad said.