On this special day we were doing our surface interval in the channel when Wagner spied a flock of birds circling and swooping down to the water in the distance. It was whale sharks feeding. As the whale shark comes up from the depth, with its big mouth open, schools of baitfish try to escape and boil up to the surface. The birds swoop in to feed.
Wagner said he would put us right on top of the whale shark, all we had to do was wait until he said jump.
With mask, snorkel and fins we jumped on the given signal and swam down with a lung full of air. In the abyss I could see something huge coming straight toward us but I was too mesmerized to move. My lungs were beginning to burn for fresh air but there was no way I was going to miss this experience. Suddenly the huge fish was upon us with its mouth open wide enough to swallow us whole. I looked over at Mary and her eyes were wide with excitement. I just knew it was going to hit me but it made a graceful turn. As it glided by it looked at me with an inquiring eye and the gentle giant’s dorsal and tail fin narrowly missed me.
We have had many memorable experiences with whale sharks but this one rated a special mention in my dive log. It was a great day to dive!
Whale Shark Facts:
The whale shark is of the family: Carpet Shark-Rhincodontidae. You would think that it would eat like a shark but it doesn’t. Its gill arches are specially modified to filter out planktonic organisms and small critters such as squid, anchovies, sardines and mackerel. They love to feed on eggs of large fish such as cubera and grouper during spawning. Being the largest fish in the world it can grow up to 55 feet. The whale sharks we have seen in Utila were all in excess of 30 feet.
Note dorsal fin and roiling water after our near miss.
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