Check the other thread... They would have been killed otherwise. They were caught by Taiwanese fisherman, and GAI bought them. Taiwan has an allowable catch of 30 whale sharks this year, which legislation has finally been able to reduce to 0 by 2008.
Anyways, no I don't know about the chemical; I posted in the reef chemistry forum, but no chemical identities yet... Some people listed off a few possibilities:
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...readid=1142193
Again, they say it was a commonly used treatment... Perhaps it WAS a form of copper...