Transcript
After Gulliver, the baby whale shark, was discovered in Nukunonu Atoll's lagoon, children were kept away from the water for months and local leaders plotted its death.
Researchers say there have been sporadic sightings of Gulliver for the past two years which recently ramped up, sparking safety fears in the New Zealand territory.
At just under three metres in length, Gulliver is believed to be the only documented case where a whale shark has been effectively trapped inside a lagoon.
Researchers say he probably made his way in during a high tide and is unlikely to make it out because he has grown larger.
Local resident Elena Pisilio says she was hanging out the washing when she first saw it earlier this year.
"And all these kids just started running past and they started calling out 'the whale shark, the whale shark!' And I went over and it was just swimming around."
Things are less tense now that Nukunonu locals know they're dealing with a gentle vegetarian giant, but it wasn't always this way.
Australian whale shark researcher Brad Norman was contacted by a local school teacher last year seeking to put fear and alarm to rest.
Then, in May, Mr Norman and two other Australian researchers travelled to Tokelau.
By then, it had been around six months since kids had been allowed to swim in the lagoon.
Ms Pisilio says the researchers' were able to convince people the fish wasn't a threat and the swimming ban was lifted.
"We had a massive shark but we didn't know it was a whale shark until those people came. So the parents started telling their kids they weren't allowed to go to the sea because everyone thought it was a hammershark or those other scary sharks. But then we found out it was a whale shark and it was harmless and it just happened to swim into our lagoon."
Mr Norman, the researcher, says for people who haven't seen a whale shark before, they can be scary animals.
"They hadn't seen a whale shark over there before so it was sort of like something out of the blue, so they weren't really sure."
On his way over to Tokelau, Mr Norman says a member of the Nukunonu Taupulega, or village council, suggested killing Gulliver, or trying to remove him from the lagoon.
Worried for the whale shark's safety and wanting to study the animal in such an unusual habitat, the researchers embarked on a mission to find it.
Over the course of seven or eight days, they were joined by an armada of dinghies from Nukunonu locals.
Mr Norman says at least 50 people took nearly 30 boats out in the lagoon in a mad search which also included drone fly-overs.
Finally, they found Gulliver.
"When we did find the whale shark after a number of days, we really encouraged the local guys that were helping us to jump in the water and actually swim with it as well."
Afterwards, the researchers spoke about whale sharks at the school in Nukunonu.
Schoolchildren also wrote a song about the whale shark which they performed at a sporting event.
The local newspaper, Te Uluga Talafau, published an article on Gulliver and an interview with Mr Norman.
And, now, there's even talk in Tokelau of writing a children's book on Nukunonu's beloved whale shark.
Mr Norman says he and his colleagues are looking for financial support for a research trip back to Tokelau next year.
"We'd like to use this great opportunity to really crack open some new knowledge on whale sharks and the opportunity is out there in Tokelau."
As for Gulliver, he'll keep growing until he reaches maturity - as much as 10 metres in length.
When that happens, Mr Norman says Tokelau will need help with transporting Gulliver out of the lagoon safely so he can find a mate and have his own children.
