Hey, we're Waterlust
We're in business to build a more sustainable world by bringing environmental science into your life in creative ways.
★★★★★
Waterlust is the best!
Great products, great customer service, great mission! Worth every penny.
- Michelle Rumbaut, TX
Educational resources & donation included with every purchase. Learn more.
When you’re ready for the best day ever and want a pair of shorts that are fun, supportive, and equally comfortable on land or in the water.
Characteristic spots and stripes adorn the largest fish in the sea forming an intricate pattern, like a warrior painted for battle. Scientists use these distinctive markings to identify individual whale sharks. Like a fingerprint, each is as unique and special as the last.
Main fabric: 88% Repreve® RPET (recycled polyester made from post-consumer plastic bottles), 12% spandex
Liner fabric: 91% Repreve® RPET (recycled polyester made from post-consumer plastic bottles), 9% spandex
Eyelets: brass
Drawstring: high tensile strength nylon paracord
Zipper: polyacetal resin (tough, high-strength thermoplastic)
5% of sales will be donated to Marine Megafauna Foundation, a non-profit focused on the research and conservation of threatened marine megafauna, particularly sharks and rays.
Orders are lovingly packaged using minimal packaging and eco-responsible materials, and shipped from our wonderful partner warehouse in Pennsylvania within the same or next business day. We’ll email you with your tracking info as soon as your order is shipped.
Learn more about shipping, exchanges and returns here.
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We lovingly prepare each one of our orders for its journey to you using the best packaging materials we can find with the least environmental impact.
Free within the U.S. International orders must pay return postage. Exchanges orders can be placed immediately with an instant credit.
We stand behind every product we make. If you have a problem, we will solve it with the relentless determination of a salmon swimming upstream to spawn.
Whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) are fish, not whales - allowing them to hold the esteemed title of "largest fish in the sea" (since sharks are fish too!). These charismatic creatures can reach lengths of 12 meters (40 feet) or more! Despite their large size, they feed on some of the smallest organisms in the sea, plankton. Hanging vertically in the water column they're able to suction feed and filter these tiny organisms through their gill rakers much like a giant vacuum cleaner pulls dust and dirt from a kitchen floor, filtering the fragments into its chamber within.
Unfortunately, approximately 100 million sharks are killed every year by humans, through direct targeted fishing efforts as well as unintended bycatch from other fisheries. The whale shark is one species of shark that is particularly vulnerable to this commercial fishing due to their high value in international trade, in addition to their highly migratory nature and normally low abundance. Research into the lives of these gentle giants can help us to manage their populations and keep these magnificent fish in the ocean where they belong.
The Marine Megafauna Foundation is helping to shed light on the population structure, migratory patterns, and the conservation requirements of these threatened sharks. Created in 2009, they aim to research, protect and conserve the large populations of marine megafauna (large marine species) found along the Mozambican coastline. Almost all whale sharks encountered by divers are juveniles and most are males. Where the school-bus-sized mature sharks swim, what they eat, and where the females give birth has long been a mystery, however their team is now very close to making these discoveries. 5% of sales from your purchase will go to the Marine Megafauna Foundation for satellite tags that are needed to track the movements of these large female whale sharks.
“Waterlust's support provides critical seed funding for us to rapidly develop and implement whale shark conservation projects in areas where this globally-endangered species is most at risk. This includes Mozambique, where our research and awareness work helped the government decide to fully protect whale sharks just a few weeks ago. We love working with a company that is so committed to making a positive change in the world.”
Dr. Simon Pierce, Co-Founder / Principal Scientist
the Marine Megafauna Foundation
My new whale shark shorts are super comfortable and I can tell the fish are impressed.
The pattern is perfect! The fit is great! The pockets are real pockets and not pretend pockets! The zippers work. Excellent product and we expect to have many years with it.
Doing a happy dance in my Best Day Ever Shorts 😊. Vitamin Sea here I come 💙. Thanks so very much for such an awesome service 🙏
Whale Shark Warrior Best Day Ever Shorts
I’m writing you to thank you so much for sending me the whale shark shorts, and the tiger shark Buff, my place in Lahaina burnt down, and I lost everything and your company waterlust out of the kindness of there heart sent me the Buff and the shorts. not only is waterlust help in the environment, but helping human beings to in trouble 🙏❤️🤙🏼
I love these shorts. The length. The fit. The craftsmanship. Only two small concerts. The drawstring could grip better. Any pressure from inside loosens the bow you tie. And the lining. Why white? Navy please. If it's sitting that close to your body for an entire day. White would get sweaty and discolored
Hi Richard! Thanks so much for the feedback! The reason we chose white actually comes down to practicality and availability. We custom-make all of our own fabrics, so when we make a color, we need to stock it for other products on the shelves to maximize usage/minimize waste. We use our super soft sun shirt fabric for the liner and thought a dark color would be too hot for long sleeves in the sun. Currently, we only stock two colors in that fabric- white (which we use for printing all of our prints on), and a limited edition batch of Sea Glass Blue (a light blue gray shade). We're running low on the Sea Glass Blue, which is why we're using the white for the liner right now. But not to worry, all of our prints are 100% bleach, sun, chlorine, salt, etc. safe (guaranteed not to fade ever!), so any staining is 100% treatable. Since the sun shirts have been so popular, we have plans to add more solid colors in the future and once we have those, we may switch the lining to a different color based on availability. Hope that gives some insight into our decisions and so glad you like the shorts otherwise! :)
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