10 May 2009

Team 1: Mother's Day Whale Sharks

Happy Mothers Day!

Today dawned sunny and warm – another beautiful day in paradise!

The groups again split in two, with group 1 going to the lab to continue with the valuable photo identification work, while group 2 (Nat, Alex and Doris, with the able assistance of Steve and Yohanna) got to head back out to the water.

Today with headed out with King Dive to swim with the whale sharks, and from the moment we stepped onto the spacious boat it was fun, relaxed, and almost luxury – a perfect way to spend mothers day in our “home-away-from-home”.

We first headed out to the inside reef to try out our gear (and for the hosts to make sure we could swim!) and have a bit of fun. Romani from King Dive accompanied us out there, taking photos of us frolicking in the warm, clear water. Coral atolls, colourful fish, sea slugs, jelly fish, wrasse and parrot fish, all vying for our attention in the shimmering sunlight. Perfect!

All to soon it was time to head back on board for a scrumptious morning tea and compulsory safety lecture, and then the highly capable staff headed us south in search of the whale sharks. With dolphins dancing in the distance, the sunlight warming us as we lolled on the front deck, and the turtles bobbing along, we thought the day couldn’t get any better.

It wasn’t long before the first whale shark was found and in we all (ok, the first half anyway) dived! An open mouth heading our way from the depths heralded the arrival of this 6 m majestic fish. A mad scramble for positions, a few measured photos of the left and right pectoral sides for identification, and a few minutes to enjoy the experience before passing the whale shark to the next group and diving back in for an even bigger lad– our perfect day had gotten better!

We had several drops on him (they had knick-named him “Gillett” due to the nick out of his tail) and it was pure magic. It also allowed us to really take note of him – scrapes and scars, a tag in his dorsal fin, the nick in his tail, the fish swimming with him – all helpful information on his ongoing monitoring. He descended to the reef bottom a few times, but we could still just make him out by the white fish swimming with him. Such camouflage!

Before long it was time to say goodbye to him too, but not much further away were two more, including a young one no more than 3 metres long! More photos for identification and then time to relax and enjoy the experience. At one stage, the little lad was at the front of the boat, and the larger boy almost launched himself onto the Marlin Board at the rear of the boat, much to the delight of those on board! (The boat had turned off his motors to avoid them both!) It certainly gave those on board something to look at and much to talk about! (OK, so maybe he didn’t launch himself, but he swam so close to the boat that those of us swimming beside him ran into the side of the boat!).

All too soon it was time to say goodbye to those wonderful creatures and indulge our other senses with a gourmet lunch. Another relaxing swim on the reef in the afternoon, and all too soon it was time to head back in and rejoin the rest of the group working hard in the lab for the day!

Wow, what a Mothers Day!

-Natalie

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