After my fantastic day swimming with the whalesharks I had a couple of days to relax around Exmouth, and spent quite a bit of time reading by the caravan park swimming pool.
Mel had decided that she did not want to miss out on the chance to see whalesharks, and had booked a flight up from Perth on Saturday morning, and I had made a booking with Kat at Ningaloo Blue for her for Sunday. Kat offered me the opportunity to go out again, as there was a spare place on the boat, and I jumped at the chance.
So at 7.30am we were outside the front of the caravan park, and were picked up for another glorious sunny day aboard “Venture IV”.
After the early snorkel, it took a while for the spotter plane to find any whalesharks, and everyone relaxed on the boat, until just before lunch the first shark was spotted.
Things got pretty hectic from then, and we were in and out the water quite a few times, as a second and then third shark appeared, all pretty close by.
Having seen a couple of whalesharks only a few days before did not lessen the impact of seeing them again, and it is amazing to jump off the back of the boat, and wait suspended in the water, staring into the blue distance trying to get a first glimpse of the giant that you know is heading towards you.
Brad, the skipper of the boat did an awesome job, and dropped us directly in the track of the shark pretty-much every time, and when it appears at the limits of your visibility, heading straight towards you, it really does take your breath away.
There is a sudden flurry anf thrashing of fins, as everyone hurries to get out of the incredible creature’s path, and jockey for best position to view it as you swim alongside it.
We saw a couple of smaller sharks later in the day, but the first one we saw was about 6 metres long, and was stunning to see coming straight towards you! Have a look at the third picture here, and check out the size of the snorkellers seen behind the sharks tail to get an idea of the scale of this huge fish.
Once again, huge thanks to Kat and the rest of the fantastic team at Ningaloo Blue, for helping to make this such a wonderful experience.
The following pix are all courtesy of V, the videographer who worked on the boat for both of my trips, and took some awesome video. These pix are screen captures from the DVD, hence the slightly poor quality, but I think they do a wonderful job of capturing the size and majesty of these amazing fish.
More info on whalesharks and whaleshark conservation at:
www.whaleshark.org