Team 1: A Dream Fulfilled

Today group two (Nat, Doris, Alex) led by Dacy and Yo went with the Tour Operator, Ningaloo Dreaming, to take photos of the Whale Sharks. Group one (Ken, Tanya, Leah) led by Brad and Steve, went to the lab to identify Whale Sharks.

Group one had an amazing day, seeing four Whale Sharks. One swim with the Whale Sharks lasted 50 mins, which is an incredible amount of time and pretty rare! There are some great pics and even a 10 mins video (see below). Yo got to see Whale Sharks today, a 13 year dream fulfilled – we could hear the screams of joy from the lab J !!! Excited is an understatement. “It’s not just the highlight of my day, it’s the highlight on my life” said Yo.

Group two had an induction into the lab and a lesson in how to upload and identity Whale Sharks. Whale Sharks have spots that are as individual as a human finger prints and therefore you can identity individuals through photos or video footage. One of the highlights of the day was the identification of a Whale Shark that hadn’t been identified since 1996 and by chance was also part of Brad’s thesis! “I almost went cross-eyed looking at all those spots, but it was a great day” said Tanya. We had an impromptu visit from Ann who had given us a ‘Welcome to Country’ on the 1st day.

For dinner we had a bit of a schitzo dinner with both BBQ lamb chops/veggie snags and baked veggies – nice after a hard days work. As it was Friday night some wine and beer was had to celebrate and congratulate Yo on her dream fulfilled!!!

-Leah