I was listening to an interview on the radio of a dive trip to the Galapagos. The diver said that he was told not to look at the large whale sharks directly into the eyes. When asked why, he was unable to answer.

Does anyone know if this is true and if so why?

Have you got the link? That would be interesting to listen to! Was it the dive operator that gave the interview?

It was the dive master that said this to the divers. Anyways here is the full interview.

It can be found at scubaradio.com.
www.scubaradio.com/srpodcast.xml

Look for the file SR_11-28-09_HOUR2.mp3

The part on the whale sharks start at the 15:30 mark of the radio show and lasts about one and a half minutes.

I didn't listen to the podcast today, but assume it was with Rodney Derrick. I was on that trip. The only reason not to look a whale shark in the eye is because if the whale shark sees you, it might dive too deep to follow or turn away thus depriving the other divers of the experience. Having said that, our dive guide on that trip would often 'herd' the whale shark by placing himself in the front of the whale shark where it could see him. This way, if he got there earlier, more often than not he could turn the shark so it wasn't gone by the time the other divers caught up.