WICKED AWESOME!!
That was the most awesome and wonderful experience I have had in a LONG TIME!
The whale sharks are HUGE! And that is an understatement!
Wow!
That was the most awesome and wonderful experience I have had in a LONG TIME!
The whale sharks are HUGE! And that is an understatement!
Wow!
To swim so close that I could reach out and touch the behemoth if I had wanted to, was so spectacular. To see this shape appear and materialize into a flattish head with white spots and go right underneath me!! To see the tail slowly swish lazily but powerfully back and forth. Plus, to experience it with with four different whale sharks. More remarkably, we practically set a record for staying with one animal. Two of our encounters lasted for thirty, maybe forty seconds, and that is more typical. But one animal was extremely accommodating, allowing the eight of us from our boat plus over 15 from several other boats to swim along for a total of around an hour!!! Carolyn, the master swimmer that she is, was with it for probably around 45 of those minutes! She was swimming with it so long that everyone else from the other boats tired and got out of the water TWICE before it dove out of sight and Carolyn (and one of the guides from our boat) gave up!
These animals are so very majestic. Cruising just below the surface as they filter feed on plankton and small shrimp and fish, we are able to snorkel with them. Right along side of them. Right over them! You definitely don't really realize just how big they are until you are there, literally staring them in the eye. Pictures don't do them justice. You have to be in the water with them. The one we swam with the longest was at least 10 meters long. Its head was at least a meter and a half wide. Its tail was probably 2 meters tall (more?) , and the height of its body from bottom to top of the dorsal fin was also about 2 meters. Yet its size belies its nature: it seems the most peaceful of animals, simply cruising along. Sometimes it dives a little deeper, then comes back to the surface, slowly changing directions. Most of the time we didn't have to swim very fast to keep up.
Whale sharks are dark bluish grey on top, whitish on the bottom. Their front is covered with beautiful large white spots, and from the pectoral fins back the spots form lines back to the tail. I could really study the spots because I was swimming for so long with it: the white spots are surrounded with a circle of dark spots that overlap slightly with the white spots, and there are other greyer spots as well. It is a very beautiful animal.
This particular animal had damage from boat propellers. Its left pectoral fin was missing the last fourth, and both the top of the tail and dorsal fin has chunks missing and scars. Plus there were some other scars on the body itself. I felt sad to see the damage, but also felt at ease knowing that at least whale sharks are now protected from slaughter.
It is really difficult to describe how I felt during and after the encounters, other than what I wrote at the top of this blog. My heart was pounding at first at the excitement, but later, after I calmed down, I felt very peaceful. I just swam easily along, studying its shape and size and the way its gill slits would open and close slightly. It is so magnificent--this huge living animal! Right next to me! Sometimes I had to swim further away just to be able to take the whole animal in and really appreciate its size. I also looked around to see Carolyn and JoJo swimming next to it (and Carolyn occasionally dove down deeper). I was very happy to be able to share this experience with them. :->
This is one experience I will carry to my deathbed!
These animals are so very majestic. Cruising just below the surface as they filter feed on plankton and small shrimp and fish, we are able to snorkel with them. Right along side of them. Right over them! You definitely don't really realize just how big they are until you are there, literally staring them in the eye. Pictures don't do them justice. You have to be in the water with them. The one we swam with the longest was at least 10 meters long. Its head was at least a meter and a half wide. Its tail was probably 2 meters tall (more?) , and the height of its body from bottom to top of the dorsal fin was also about 2 meters. Yet its size belies its nature: it seems the most peaceful of animals, simply cruising along. Sometimes it dives a little deeper, then comes back to the surface, slowly changing directions. Most of the time we didn't have to swim very fast to keep up.
Whale sharks are dark bluish grey on top, whitish on the bottom. Their front is covered with beautiful large white spots, and from the pectoral fins back the spots form lines back to the tail. I could really study the spots because I was swimming for so long with it: the white spots are surrounded with a circle of dark spots that overlap slightly with the white spots, and there are other greyer spots as well. It is a very beautiful animal.
This particular animal had damage from boat propellers. Its left pectoral fin was missing the last fourth, and both the top of the tail and dorsal fin has chunks missing and scars. Plus there were some other scars on the body itself. I felt sad to see the damage, but also felt at ease knowing that at least whale sharks are now protected from slaughter.
It is really difficult to describe how I felt during and after the encounters, other than what I wrote at the top of this blog. My heart was pounding at first at the excitement, but later, after I calmed down, I felt very peaceful. I just swam easily along, studying its shape and size and the way its gill slits would open and close slightly. It is so magnificent--this huge living animal! Right next to me! Sometimes I had to swim further away just to be able to take the whole animal in and really appreciate its size. I also looked around to see Carolyn and JoJo swimming next to it (and Carolyn occasionally dove down deeper). I was very happy to be able to share this experience with them. :->
This is one experience I will carry to my deathbed!
WOW!!!
3 comments:
What a great experience. Am so happy for you guys.
Hope these "butandings" (as whale sharks are called in the Philippines) are still there when we go in April!
Fantastic! So glad you had this amazing experience. Hope one day to do it too!
Oh wow! I cannot really even begin to imagine what a cool experience this must have been, but your description sure does help me get close!
I wonder if this experience could nudge Carolyn into marine biology rather than biochemistry?
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