Whale Sharks Galore

Up at 6:30 to be at the whale shark & oceanic research centre (WSORC) for 7:15. Me and Tracy and another couple are paid customers, then a bunch of volunteers are coming as well. We left at 8:00am.

On the way to the area where whare sharks are spotted, we saw a pod of dolphins.

There were no whale shark sightings yesterday, but there was the day before.

We looked around for a long time. Our first catch was a plastic chair partially covered in barnacles that we hauled on board. Next was a huge plastic bag filled with garbage, it was also hauled on board.

Things were not looking good, we'd been out for probably over an hour and I thought we were heading back when we spotted two boats who were tracking a whale shark. There are regulations in place regarding number of boats and number of swimmers allowed in the water at once, so we waited back until the other boats left, then started tracking the whale shark.

To track, the captain of the boat looks for "boils" on the surface of the ocean, which are thousands of fish jumping out of the water as the shark feeds. Once the captain gets close, he can see the whale shark near the surface, then guides the boat near, then screams at everyone to get in the water, it's close!

The first jump was spectacular! I went in and immediately, less than 3 metres away, this >25 foot whale shark swam past, right in front of my face. I'm sure I was inside the 3 metre "do not enter" zone (stay a minimum of 3 metres away from the shark, 4 metres near the tail, as the tail could break your bones!) The shark then dove down and we all climbed back on board.

The second jump, we missed her, she was gone by the time we entered the water.

Poor Tracy, she's never snorkeled before, never been in the ocean before, so she was very anxioux and nervous about this. She missed the first jump and freaked a bit on the second jump. Fortunately, our main guide, LB, took Tracy aside and, with the help of a floatie device around her waist, tried to show her how to properly use the equipment.

Another jump, I was first in the water and swam along side of her (the whale shark), about 12 feet away, for about 30 seconds before she went down. AWESOME!!!!

Meanwhile, Tracy is still getting lessons on snorkelling.

We had some other jumps where we saw the whale shark from a distance as well. The volunteers, some of them that have been there for months and months, said these are the best jumps they'd ever had.

On another jump, most of the snorkelers were back on the boat, but me and LB were still in the water just getting ready to climb on board when the captain starts screaming "Behind you, behind you!". Both LB and me look back and there she was, right behind us, coming up to take a look at us (not feed), as there's no fish around. She got a look at us, then turned away and dove down. Amazing.

By this time, we were having such great jumps that the dive centre associated with WSORC has asked us to stay out and track the shark so they can get another boat out with more people that want to snorkel. We're sure getting our money's worth, as normally they'd had called it a day by now. The crew and volunteers were blown away.

The best jump happened later, Tracy felt she was ready to give it a go. Everyone else had gone into the water, me and Tracy were last. I pulled my mask down, put my head under and the whale shark was swimming directly at Tracy and I, just metres away. Whale sharks can't see directly in front of them, so they told us in the quick training session if you're in front, swim to the side she it can see you. I started swimming to one side, and he saw me and swerved a bit, directly at Tracy still. I turned my head to look. The whale shark was about 1 metre away when Tracy got her mask under water and did she get a surprise! She was startled, the shark was right there. Tracy immediately tried to start swimming away, and I'm sure her fin hit the shark in the face, and it turned and went down. LB immediately went to Tracy's rescue to make sure she was alright. We have a picture and a video of Tracy almost getting eaten alive by this whale shark. Back on the boat, everyone was laughing and talking about Tracy's close encounter with the shark kind. That definitely did not follow regulation!

We kept following the boils byt stopped doing jumps, waiting and waiting for the other boat to arrive. It finally came with 10 people. Our captain laughed when he saw one of them, she's been trying to see whale sharks for weeks, but everytime she comes out, they never find any. She's probably thinking this is her chance!! They all swam to our boat and then us 4 transferred to the other boat (it was a small speed boat) in huge swells, a bit scary.

We got back about 2:00pm and will meet back at the dive shop at 5:00 for a debriefing and to look at everyone's photo's.

Tracy and me went for lunch, then back to the dive centre at 4:00 and hung out.

Everyone showed up at 5:00 and we found out that the 10 people that came out to replace us on the boat struck out. Hahaha. No whale shark sightings after we left. We got soooo lucky!

We looked at the pictures and video, discovering that someone got a picture of Tracy almost getting eaten, but better yet, there's video of it!

As it got dark, we walked onto the dock of the dive shop. There's a dock light there and eagle rays like to come in in the night and swim around the light. We saw a few.

Went back inside and woman who works the bar started chatting us up. She's a local, born and raised on Utila. She loves to talk politics, growing up on the island, the waste of people now, how the island has changed, etc., etc., etc.

We talked for about 2 hours, then to bed about 9:30.