24 May 2009

Team 3 Earthwatch Woodside TeachLive Day 2

The day I nearly got eaten by a shark.

We departed south of Exmouth this morning in search of whale sharks. First we had a training dive and I’ve never seen so many fish in all my life, all colours, sizes and shapes. One of the other people in the team saw a shovel-nosed ray. We moved on waiting for the spotter plane to find the whale sharks. We waited for a while before the first whale shark was sighted but unfortunately it was a little too deep for me to see, so it was suggested that I maybe open my eyes!

So it wasn’t long until we could jump back into the water on another sighting and this time I was right in-front of the whale shark. Out of the murkiness came the whale shark face on. I was able to get some really good photos of him as he passed just to the left of me. Everybody was swimming like mad to keep up with him. We boarded the boat again and everybody was ecstatic at their first whale shark sighting and eager to get back into the water. It was estimated to be about 4-5 metres long and surrounded by small fish. We had to then wait a while for the sharks to come to the surface again. There was a frenzy of diving as several whale sharks came to the surface over a short time. It was a case of into the water, swim along with the shark and 7 other divers, out of the water and back again 4 times. The last dive turned out to be extra special as the whale shark swam away from us and all of a sudden it decided to turn back giving us the best viewing of the day. An experience I can’t really explain but has to be done.

Allan

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