Utila, Honduras -- Whale Shark Experience pt.2

Allow me to set the stage for this next story as there are many factors that come in to play, without which you wont be able to share (at the very least, in some small part) in the feelings of those on the boat at the time. If you ever been deep sea fishing you know what its like to sit still or to putter around on the water in your boat for long periods of time with no real or tangible outcome. Now as a diver hearing stories over dinner of miscellaneous undersea spectacles as veiwed by those expereienced divers with decades of years spent traveling and seeing creatures that would amaze you - it should come as no real surprise that the epic Whale Shark is sort of akin to that of the Unicorn or something that is oft raved about and seldom seen by many, even those with hours upon hours of bottom-time logged. We spent about 20 or minutes watching the birds actually - I'll tell you why: here is how this all works, the birds circle the area from above, watching the shadows in the water herd the bait fish together into something called a 'boil' (these fast moving shadows being the Tuna), the Tuna are kind of like the sheepdogs of the ocean, the Tuna, working together and numbering sometimes in the hundreds, push the bait fish to the surface so they are trapped against the air with nowhere to go for escape, the whale shark follows the tuna (allowing them to do all the hard work) to the concentration of its dinner, once the bait fish or shrimp get close enough to the surface the birds actually dive down into the water (all the way down to 80+ feet deep, using their wings to move the water) to get at the fish - even with tuna and a huge whale shark in the area! Then the shark just comes in for the small fish and shrimps and all the tuna jump out of the way right before the shark eats a huge gulp of the bait ball. So we watch the birds and all of a sudden the fish hit the surface and theres all this splashing around and the birds are going crazy and now we know where to jump in - I guess that makes us crazy too huh...ah well, its fun!

They say they are large as a school bus underwater, that as they slowly pass by you and can almost count foot after foot between the head and dorsal fin and then count again from the fin to the tail. They say that if the tail hits you, it can knock a 300 pound man unconsious instantly. They say that in comparison the size of a man is so miniscule that if you can hang on to the fin of the fish, it wont even feel you hanging onto it. The fish could swallow you 100% effortlessly in its mouth which when opened is larger than the diameter of a dinner table that sits 6 people. But yet, the diet of the fish consists completely of shrimps and bait fish that are no bigger than your pinkie finger; in fact if it swallows anything larger that something that size it will actually expel it voluntarily. For its size it is the most gentle animal in the ocean, actual whales are the only other creature in the sea that can compare to its size and weight and girth and a whale is by nature and instinct a much more aggressive and territorial animal which obviously makes it quite a bit more dangerous for a person to be in the water with the latter as opposed to the former.

I think when you look at what it eats and, in relation to its size, how gentle and easy going its nature is that God has kind of struck a balance within this animal that would be the reverse of what many might think, certainly the reverse of what I would think. This thing is the biggest fish in the sea, literally, but yet it has no rows and rows of razor sharp teeth, no real aggression towards man, no real aggression towards any other sharks or inhabitants of its home turf. Also, God created it to feed wholly on a fish that is so small that even a man would have to eat over a pound to get full - this thing has to eat TONS of them per day. This means that it must travel l-o-n-g distances to find them (how does the fish know how to find them in the vast ocean?), then it has to get them grouped together (how does it get them in a tightly packed bunch to feed when it moves to slowly?), the shrimps have to mate AND reproduce AND grow to maturity at such a fast rate in order to not have their numbers wiped out by the sharks AND also to have enough around to feed the sharks seemingly endless hunger (think of the biggest guy you know and imagine how much food it takes to sate him at dinner time..then multiply that by a factor of 6 to 800 times). Now try to tell me that God is not amazing, try to tell me that God is not an ongoing part of this world, that He doesnt take extreme interest in even the smallest things (remember that these fish live and eat and die in a world that for the most part +95% of all people in all of history have not seen or experienced first hand)...why such a high level of detail and complexity for this particular chain in the eco-system that also no humans would ever know about? I find the ocean to house a plethora of mysteries like this, I find them over and over each time I go under to explore some more. See, there is another tangent for you! Tangents are my bread and butter...ok moving on...

So the dive boat is setup in such a way that there are two rows of air tanks and the rows of divers sit facing each other before the dive begins, well when you are searching for whale sharks the divers don their snorkel (not scuba) gear and sit on the little bench behind the tanks facing out to the ocean on each side (see pic). Then you hang onto the railing behind your back and dangle your legs and fins just above the water as the captain slowly positions the boat at the best spot to view the fish. So eventually the engines are cut and the OK is given to enter the water, as you can imagine the fall from 3 or 4 feet over the water will cause a bit of a splash and when 25 people jump at the same time from both sides of the boat the splash is pretty big and can serve to scare the fish away as sudden quicks movement and white water are signs of danger in the animal world. Well it happened exactly this way and after I entered the water and the bubbles cleared some I could see the 25 foot long giant in the water vertically under the boat. Talk about seeing it at an odd angle, it was opening and closing its mouth against the white hull of the boat as though it was trying to nurse its mother or something. When we all jumped in we actually jumped in all around it and surely surprised the heck out of the poor guy. He started moving away below us, at a fairly good 'clip', moving to the other side of the boat actually and toward open water. Now I go the gym 2 to 3 times per week and I really wanted to see this fish (we came to Honduras particularly to see this guy) so I came up, took a big gulp of air and dove down, swimming under the hull of the boat and down to about 15 feet under the surface following the shark. I was kicking those fins as hard as I could, rapidly using up that gulp of air! I began to acend and took another breath while still maintaining my fast fin kicks, I probably followed him (or her) for 60 feet before the giant began to slow a bit. It was kind of funny to notice how this thing was leisurely swimming along using only a gentle tail kick and yet it was gaining on me and I was kicking as hard as I could. Boy, I felt like a fish out of water (sorry for that horrible pun). At this point, I must have been well over 150 feet from the boat, alone, with this behemoth in probably about 2,000+ feet of open water. The fish slowed and actually came to a bit of a halt in the water about 20 feet below me, I stopped kicking and laid there over it watching and breathing easy. I was doing all I could to take it all in. After a few minutes together just looking at each other, the fish stirred slowly to the left so a second after it I matched its movement, it slowed again and then moved its enormous head to the right, so again I kicked twice to my right, I kicked horizonally in the water so I wouldnt make much sound or splash as I certainly didnt want to scare the beast off. It stopped again, but soon started moving again, just a slow back and forth of the tail so I was able to keep up quite effortlessly. Taking a small breath a went under a bit to gauge its comfort level with my proximity and sure enough it descended some as I came down a bit too. Obviously it was a bit timid after such a sudden exposure with a bunch of people. Back to the surface I went and the fish rose slightly as I distanced myself from it again...seemed like it was OK with 15-20 feet between us but not any less. My ear broke the surface at that moment and I could hear the dive boat moving over toward us; knowing the noise would certainly prompt the fish to move away, either deeper or laterally, I took a big breath and dove straight down hoping to get to touch the giant before they plucked me from the water. The fish was waiting for me to do this I think for as soon as I reached 5 feet under it had already started moving down into deeper water, I again kicked hard anyways but couldnt catch it, I probably went down maybe 35-40 feet and it was a good ways below me so I bid my friend adu and came up again slowly to meet the boat as it got nearer to me. This experience was the second of two sightings we had of two different fish. The Captain told us that this guy was the bigger of the two, measuring about 25 feet long (making him/her a juvenile, not having even reached adulthood yet). The first one we saw was a baby at about 15 feet long - that viewing was only about 5 seconds long as it moved past the boat and all of us snorkelers quite fast diving down at the same time. Obviously I was much happier with my one-on-one experience described above.

Oh, all I had at the time was one of those crap-quality plastic Walmart underwater cameras so the pix above that are super grainy were taken with that thing. At least they are some sort of memento of our time there seeing such an amazing animal! Hopefully not the last time we see it too! Hope you enjoyed that story!

Utila, Honduras -- Whale Shark Experience pt.1

I haven’t looked over my dive log lately and that, perhaps, is why I am finding it a bit difficult to remember any further big 'eyebrow raising' experiences we had while in the South Pacific (though I am sure there were many more that can be shared...more later possibly); none the less, I thought it prudent to mention another great experience I had the pleasure of enjoying somewhat recently. That being our contact (not physical contact of course) with 2 whale sharks in Honduran waters. Here we go:

A full week of diving around the island had passed by and with a single week remaining and to date no sights of a whale shark yet we were slowly becoming increasingly disillusioned about the prospect of finding one. I am sure this same feeling has been felt by hundreds and thousands of avid divers throughout the last 30+ years of recreational (and professional/commercial) oceanic exploration! This tense, uncertain feeling in the pit of our collective stomachs was not without some reprieves at different times though; let me explain: after the first morning dive we were puttering around the area during our surface interval watching the surrounding water for 'boils' of bait fish driven to the surface by predators below as this is the tell-tale method of finding anything of note in such a vast empty ocean. Off to starboard about 150 feet in front of the boat we see just such a boil; hoping a whale shark is below, a wave of excitement washes over those on board. As we slowly close in on the boil we are treated to something entirely different: a ~5 foot long striped marlin we see snapping up those baitfish as a morning snack with much enthusiasm! The water was so clear and since the marlins depth was not more than 2 feet under at any moment, we could not help but see the full coloration of this sides as well as the slight wave action of his color changes from purple to blue to red to dark green while he was feeding. This is done as another way to confuse and disorient his prey at the moment before they are eaten. Kind of brutal, I know, but so wild and still amazingly perfect in its balance too. That fact I feel is undeniable. It was a true pleasure to see such an amazing predator in the wilds of nature, his place in the world. Yet another event of which I am humbled to have witnessed.

On another day, we had a joy of spending our surface interval snorkeling with a pod of wild dolphins numbering approximately 50-65 members. We saw them coming towards us a short way off our bow and we all quickly suited up in snorkels, masks & fins to meet them in the water as they approached us. I entered the water and as fast as I could I moved far away from the rest of the crowd and floated there in the water by myself waiting for our looming contact. I even tried to make some high pitched dolphin-like sounds as I waited for them. Most likely to no avail at all but at the time it felt like the right thing to do to at least alert them that I was there (hoping them would come to investigate me closer). As I lay there, my back barely breaking the surface as the ocean gently jostles be back and forth a bit my eyes are locked in their direction as I keep my head just under the surface. Times passes slowly and the anticipation grows so I pop up to check on the distance to see where their dorsal fins are breaking the surface and if they are still oncoming toward my position in relation to the boat and the other divers. They are, I am right in their path. After that confirmation, my head quickly goes back under and I watch even more intently for them. Finally, I see some faint movements in the water, 25+ dark shapes moving up and down approaching me; with my heart beating faster now I cannot help making a few more high pitched dolphins sounds like you hear on the Discovery Channel (please don’t laugh too hard). They come into full view and seem to slow a bit as they see me in person. I had heard a few chirps and beeps from them as they use their sonar ability to map out the path in front of them so I already knew that they knew exactly where I was already. I laid in the water largely motionless as the pod parted to the left and right around me, giving me a birth of about 15 feet. My head darting around quickly now, trying to take it all in I noticed a few, maybe 8 to 9 members, from the next little group coming toward me diving to pass by me from below, not to be outdone I take a large breath and dive straight down to try to meet them in our mystical underwater nexus. I kick hard to gain the depth I think I will need to have a good look-see. Keeping my eyes on the group I see a head look up toward me as an extension of the downward kick, at this point I am 5 feet away, and can clearly see all the markings and some scars on their backs as they pass below me (indeed ocean life is a tough life). They pass below me as others pass me on either side and as the pod slowly goes by in its entirety I am left knowing fully how unsuited for this place I am as a man but yet connected and deeply moved to see this sight and for even a few excellent moments to have been a part of their pod, as the weakest link most certainly but I like to think of my presence as a part none the less. Go ahead, call me crazy… :)

Ok, so I don’t think I will be getting to the actual story of the whale sharks in this post, but that is kind of my style isn’t it?!?! We will save that for next time and I promise I will get right into it then. I will leave you with a final story about yet another dolphin experience we had on the exact opposite side of the island during a surface interval during our first week of diving there in Utila. As ocean experiences go, I am sure the word 'risqué' doesn’t usually factor in much at all, but what we saw while on the boat was, for lack of a better term quite 'risqué' indeed. We notice some splashing and movement at the surface about 200 feet off the port side of the boat, almost directly abeam of us and our Captain 'Waggy' (Wagner) starts to move us over in that direction as we can investigate closer. I am looking intently now and can see flashes of white and dark blue/grey very near the surface. I start to wonder if it is sharks feeding or fighting with other sharks or dolphins or something. As we close in it becomes much more obvious: what we are seeing is dolphins mating, hence the white underbelly coloration as the females turn over for the males. Upon seeing this, the Dive Masters start to tell us some random facts about this topic: that dolphins don’t just mate for procreation but rather for the propagation of close feelings of community & togetherness, that a female will mate with multiple males at the same time and that males will mate with each other also - this being more for the maintaining of that strong connection within the pod (to keep the pod in close 'emotional' contact if you will). I found these facts very surprising as you could probably imagine, ESPECIALLY...no surprise here...the last one I just shared with you! None the less, some of us requested permission to enter the water in snorkel gear to observe more closely the activity we were having some trouble viewing from the surface, as the immense glare from the sun was difficult to see through, even with sun glasses on. We were promptly told "No" with the following reason: during mating and feeding times, dolphins many times take on a much different 'persona' than that of what most humans associate with them. This is much like your family dog being fun loving and gentle to your children but when eating his food in his bowl, that same dog may snap or growl a bit at those same kids when they approach him at that time. One Dive Master told us a story of how a snorkeler was actually rammed by a couple dolphins after entering the water close-by while some in the pod were mating. He was rammed so hard that their hard snouts tore his skin and broke a few ribs to boot. For sure, a recreational diver doesn’t need to hear more than a couple stories similar to this one to start thinking "maybe I'll stay on the boat this time!!" What a thought!
Ok I think that's all for now. See you next time.