Though many are of the belief that Earth was bestowed upon man for his pleasure, most can agree that we’re not exactly masters of our domain when it comes to being in the water. Don’t tell that to Sarasota charter boat captain James Bostwick, though, as he recently posted a video of himself taming one of the ocean’s most impressive beasts: The gulf whale shark.

“The fish was as big as the boat, 30 feet long,” Bostwick said. “The whale shark basically came right to us, yeah, it was as curious about us as we were about it.” Whale sharks, though massive, are docile filter feeding fish.

Bostwick says the shark was docile as he latched onto its dorsal fin and went for a spin. He claims the shark hung around for a total about 20 minutes and even interacted positively with other nearby swimmers. Though he doesn’t believe the encounter was detrimental to the animal, experts aren’t so certain.

“They can’t hurt you but we can hurt them with too much contact,” says Dr. Bob Hueter, director of the Center for Shark Research at Mote Marine Laboratory. “The problem with touching them is they have a mucous layer on the skin that is disturbed when touched too much it can compromise the health of the animal in the long run.”

Though this isolated encounter is unlikely to have any lasting effects on the shark, it’s a good reminder that nature is best seen, but not touched. Though it’s not technically against the law to do what Bostwick did to the whale shark (a protected species), it’s not advisable, either.

When asked how the experience ranked on Bostwick’s “bucket list,” he replied “1 or 2 …Very lucky one of the luckiest guys out on the water.”

See the local news coverage in the video below: