A cool video of people in the Philippines having a close encounter with a group of whale sharks off the coast of Oslob.

The footage, filmed in January, shows one of the large but harmless beasts swim directly under a kayaker, before a snorkeler dives with a camera only to find he's inches away from one.

The filmer later wrote online: "Close encounter of whale sharks as they visit the shore every morning just to look for food and feed.

"[It] attracts many people, especially tourists, because the whale sharks are not afraid of humans."

"The residents in the area also protect them (the whale sharks) since they know that they are endangered species and that there is a law in the Philippines that protects the whale sharks," he continued.

"The video will show us how great the whale shark is, you can see the white spots on its body that serve as a distinguishing factor (finger prints in humans) to another."