We didn’t see a Whale Shark today; we were however lucky enough to swim with a beautiful Manta Ray; we also saw a Blue Whale! So it was not a wasted day after all!
Our passengers were still thrilled at what they saw during the day and most of them got to use their repeat tour and those who were unable to stay on to complete the trip have got their no sighting policy open for 3 years; they all said they were coming back; yay - so we will see them again in the future.
It just shows that every day is a completely new day out on the reef, and anything can happen! We went for a couple of snorkels and were waiting patiently in hope that today would not be like yesterday! But just as people were starting to give up hope we had a call for a whaleshark and what happened from there blew us all away!
It is beyond me that there is a couple of days where we won’t see a shark and then we will find 3 of them the very next tour~! I guess this is nature at it’s best! Always keeping us in suspense.
Shark # 1: FEMALE, approx 4m in length; approx 3 swims on this shark
Shark # 2: MALE, approx 7.5m in length; approx 2 swims on this shark
Shark # 3: MALE, approx 3min length; only 1 swim on this shark
Needless to say everybody had a fantastic day and were absolutely exhausted by the time the fruit platter and champers rolled up. All of our customers were absolutely thrilled with the day thaqt they had.
“AWESOME day! Great people - very professional; great weather; recommend it totally” Anna & Mark
The day started with a bit of a difficult morning snorkel, due to quite strong current but no-one was too concerned! With a great bunch of people on board we set off out the south passage, passing dolphins and turtles to see the first whaleshark of the day. This whaleshark was trying a bit of surfing! It was roughly 4m in length and was swimming a little too close to the breaking waves on the reef for our liking! Not long after contemplating our options another shark was spotted nearby which was swimming in nice safe water a little further out. It was a beauty, about 6.5m in length and male. We had a great swim with him and although he was a bit up and down we all still had plenty off time to enjoy his company!
After a good few hours of “whale-sharking” there were definitely a few people on board who were very relieved to come into the calmer waters inside the reef! A few people had another snorkel after lunch and others just enjoyed relaxing in the sunshine!
Thanks to all the great people out today, good luck with your travels, and Happy 30th Wedding anniversary to Maja and Imre!
The day began with a morning snorkel in pretty extreme conditions, but that didn’t put anybody off! Our focus was whalesharks and we were ready and raring to go! With an awesome bunch of people on board, spirits were high and it didn’t take long for us to swim with the biggest fish in the ocean!
After plenty of swimming, chasing whale sharks it was time to head back to Tantabiddi. A glass of champas in the afternoon sunshine finished off the day beautifully!
Starting the day with a pretty extreme morning snorkel (it was pretty choppy!), a few people were a bit apprehensive of the day ahead! A lucky couple of people and I had an amazing encounter with a dugong! An experience I know I will never forget! After a short wait our spotter plane found us a whaleshark, which seemed to be what we like to call a “Yo Yo Shark”, it was up and down, up and down!
We were lucky enough to have some of the people from ECOCEAN join us on the tour today, including Helen a former employee who was very happy to be out on the water with us again! ECOCEAN is a not-for-profit association registered in Australia and established by a group of like-minded people – passionate about working for the conservation of the unique marine environment. ECOCEAN works to generate public awareness for marine conservation issues and also encourages and facilitates quality research to provide important information (data) to assist with ‘best practice’ management for the future conservation of the marine ecosystem.
Thanks to Helen, Mark, Matt and Deanna (ECOCEAN Crew) for joining us on yet another awesome Whale shark tour!
The day began much like any other on Ningaloo. A great morning snorkel and with our friends and fellow spotter’s on board Nick and Sonja ,the day was bound to be filled with lots of laughs! After a small time waiting the spotter plane found us our first whale shark, which was 6m. Shortly after a few swims with that one another 5.5m whaleshark appeared and then a 3.5m! They just kept popping up everywhere! The crew were attempting to go for the Spotter record (the most number of spotters in the water at once!) but never got the chance.
After 2 full hours of “whale-sharking” there was time for a relaxing snorkel and a bit of a swim.
Yet another great day on the Ningaloo Reef!
The great times just keep rolling in with yet another exquisite day “whale-sharking”. The morning snorkel was canned due to the skipper getting a call from one of the dive boats letting us know about a whale shark that just happened to be swimming past! No need for the spotter plane today! By 9.30am we were swimming with our first whale shark (which breaks all the records!) a beautiful 7m male. Another 4 hours down the track we had had the privilege of swimming with another three whale sharks, a 3.5m, 4m and a 5m!
In the afternoon we were able to fit in a nice leisurely snorkel and enjoy a celebratory glass of champagne. What a classic day!
Another great day out on the Ningaloo Reef! After travelling down to South Mandu we swam with a 5.5m male. Soon after the plane spotted two other whale sharks, an 8.5m male and a 7m which we swam with too!
Fantastic day!
The day started with a great morning snorkel and some dolphins playing on the bow.
After a good 4 hour wait our very patient passengers finally got to swim with a whaleshark and I’m sure they’ll all agree it was worth the wait! We travelled down to South Mandu where the spotter plane had found us a 2.5m male. After lots of swims with that one we got a call for a 5m which we just had to have a look at! Everyone marvelled at the size difference and definitely made the most of every second, seeing as they had definitely earned it!
It was a late sunset trip back to town on the bus, but it was well worth it!
Today was Kat’s first day out on the tour this season and it sure was a ripper! We also had our good friends Sam and Mal join us for the day. After a great morning snorkel it wasn’t long before we were out the back of the reef swimming with the worlds biggest fish! We started with a 6m male, then a 6.5m male and finally a whopping 8m whale shark! After two and a half hours of “whale-sharking” some of us enjoyed a nice relaxing snorkel on the reef and others played around in the beautiful warm water, lapping up the glorious West-Australian sunshine!
What a day, it was great to have you out Kat, you should do it more often!
Wow, what an awesome day to be out on the reef. Our spotter plane found us a whaleshark nice and early and boy it was a beauty! An amazing 7m male cruising along at a nice slow speed in some beautiful clear water. Before long there was another one spotted and the skipper thought we’d better have a look at that one too! This time it was a 3m male which seemed to be fascinated by the bubbles created by the marlin board going in and out of the water. It sat at the back of the boat for ages, I actually think the people on the boat had a better view than those in the water! It then proceeded to swim round the boat almost rubbing itself on the sides of Venture IV and following the people as they struggled madly to get out the way! It was great to have that contrast of a large whaleshark, just cruising along doing its own thing and a really inquisitive little one.
Beautiful sunshine and a glass of champers topped off the day nicely!
Another day in paradise! The spotter plane found us a whaleshark in no time and before long there were 3 more to swim with too. They were all between 2 - 4 m in length. After 3 hours of swimming with whalesharks everyone was extremely happy to enjoy their lunch and the gorgeous exmouth sunshine!
What a great day!
Today was the first day whale-sharking on our beautiful new boat Venture IV. We had a lovely group of people with Wildnerness travel and our very good friend Ron. Since Ron does seem to have a reputation of coming to exmouth and getting no whalesharks, we were a bit worried about the day ahead. But 3rd time lucky, we managed to have an amazing swim with a 5m female whale shark.
Another successful day out on the Ningaloo Reef!
Wow, what an amazing day to be out on a whale shark tour! We swam with 4 whale sharks, an inquisitive bronze whaler and lots and lots of krill! They were all feeding madly on these massive balls of krill and were either swimming at high speed to get to the next patch of food or sitting vertically in the water just gulping down the water rich with food!
You know its an awesome day out there when the staff are more excited than anyone! Definitely one of the best days of the season.
It took a while but after patiently waiting we managed to swim with a 3.5m whaleshark a fair way down south of the reef. The young man we had on the tour today was a bit worried that we may not actually be able to swim with the whalesharks today and whispered in my ear ” maybe the whaleshark doesn’t want to swim with us today”! How Cute! We had some great drops and an awesome morning snorkel with lots of glorious sunshine!
Thanks to all the patient people on board, it was definitely worth waiting for!
We have had an exceptional start to the 2008 season. There have only been 2 days where we didn’t get to swim with a Whale Shark and that in comparison to most other April starts is fantastic!
Today we swam with 2 sharks, 1 was approx 3 1/2m and the other a little bigger at 4 1/2.
Some dear friends joined our tour today; Vix and Randall have worked in the dive industry up here for some years but are leaving town to move to the big city; Vix decided she wanted to have one last final Whale Shark spot; so went in and did it 4 1/2 months pregnant - so we have now taken claim to having the youngest child EVER swim with a shark lol.
We actually have a lot of pregnant women do the tour - they tell me it’s because they’re making the most of their freedom before having to care for someone around the clock - makes sense!~
“What a fantastic, AMAZING day! 7 snorkels with whale shark - an experience of a lifetime - Thankyou!” Karen and Dave Stratford, Geoff, Anne and Holly
YAY - it’s going off up here on the Ningaloo Reef. The Whale Sharks have been reliable for the most part of this season; out of 7 days they have been sighted every day; although there were 2 days where we were unable to swim with them; as they just didn’t want to know about us.
Tonight myself and our 2 gem spotters - Yoshi and Emily all attended the DEC (Dept of Environment and Conservation)
Whale Shark Interaction Guiding course.
In previous years I didn’t believe it would be necessary for me to attend as I work in the shop; but decided to support ‘the team’ and go this year. I am SO GLAD that I did; I learned so much!!
I have been doing this job for hmm well; this is my 5th season; and I love every second of it! I do wish I got to go on the boat more; but someone has to hold the office together :)
So the night was information packed; DID YOU KNOW that when the last lot of satelling tagging was done on the Whale Sharks; they were recorded going to gepths of 1500m; that is when the tags stopped working!!! How AMAZING is that??
And that big 18m shark that was killed in Taiwan years ago; the one with the 300 babies inside it at ALL DIFFERENT sizes of development; well a few of the babies who were at about 50cm in length were still alive; so they sent them to an underwater observatory in Japan!
Sad about the mother; but we would never have know that the Whale Sharks produce in such a way without the information being recorded.
There is so little known about many of the Whale Sharks characteristics; so I guess any information is useful!
Today we FINALLY got to swim with a Whale Shark! This is made even better that we had some REPEAT passengers on board who missed out on their first tour; thankfully we have the “No Sighting Policy” which meant they got to join us for another tour for FREE! They were ecstatic!
Today was another beautiful day on the reef; with magnificent snorkeling and glorious sunshine!
Again; we spotted a number of Whale Sharks but couldn’t get a swim on them; they were being very uncooperative!
As mentioned in my post yesterday; we rely on them swimming on the surface becasue they want to not becasue they have to; so there are naturally times when it is difficult to get a swim with them.
On a positive the day was magnificent and we had a BRILLIANT snorkel and swam with some turtles and lots of beautiful fish and still finished the day with a chilled glass of champers!
Although dissapointed by the sharks; everyone on board still had a joyful day; basking in the warm Ningaloo sun, swimming in our turquoise water which is still about 28 degrees!