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!