The Whale Shark is the biggest fish in the sea and polka dotted. Today I went on a Whale Shark dive off the coast of Placencia, Belize and I knew it was going to be a good day when we saw 2 Whale Sharks from the boat. We saw 2 more on our first dive and 2 more on our second dive along with a few other sharks. It was amazing. On the first dive, we dropped in and only swam a minute or two before we came face to face with a 25' Whale Shark. It was vertical right in front of us and amazingly beautiful. I could see the detail in the sharks' gills and the ridges on the body. And those polka dots, I just love them. The fine for touching a Whale Shark is $5,000USD, so you don't dare go near enough, but on the second dive I had one heading straight towards me. It was kind of scary and definitely paralyzing. This whale shark gradually moved up and swam right over my head! I felt like I could have lifted my hand up and rubbed it's belly as it swam over me. Breathtaking. I can't even begin to adequately describe the grace, beauty and size of this creature. And to have the ability to swim beside it, under it, over it is incredible.
Here's the whole story. I went out with Splash Divers, located near the pier in Placencia, Belize. There are certain fish that spawn here around the time of the full moon and the Whale Shark feeds on those fish. The perfect time is about 3-4 days after the full moon, when all the whale sharks have had a chance to move into the area. The full moon was on Friday and I booked whale shark dives for Tuesday through Thursday. As I waited, I checked in at the dive shops daily to see if they had come yet. As of yesterday, there was a sighting here or there, but nothing major. Today, the 4th day after the full moon, they were out! We took a big speed boat out about an hour and a half. The water was like the picturesque blue and green Caribbean water you see in the movies. The first part of the boat trip was smooth, but after we checked in with the park rangers and passed the reef, it got rough. When the boat wasn't acting like a roller coaster over the large swells, the front would edge over the crest of a swell and slam down, lifting you clear out of your seat and slamming you back down. I could literally feel my internal organs slamming with the boat. This was not a ride for the weak of stomach. In fact, one girl took 3 Dramamine and still got so sick, she spent the first part of the day on our boat and the second on the boat of the park rangers so she didn't have to take the large waves outside the reef again. Enough about that, back to the fun part. Our first sighting was of a small dolphin who made his way along side our boat for about 5 minutes. Our guides said this was a good sign, but I'm not sure why. They hunt the Whale Shark by tracking a combination of marine life, birds hovering at water level and surface bubbles. The Whale Shark loves bubbles. When we saw the first whale in the water, I must admit, I got slightly emotional. Everyone on the boat ran to the side with the shark and jeopardized the boat's floatability significantly, but no one cared. It was beautiful. From there it was a back and forth over whether we were going to jump in and snorkel with the shark or wait until we began our dive. After 3 or 4 times of putting my weight belt on then taking it off, we decided to head to the wall and start our dive. As I said before it wasn't long before the giant was right in front of me, vertical. And an amazing sight. I kept moving closer to get in front of the air bubbles from the other divers and just watched as the shark moved about the water. We saw our second shark a few minutes after number one left and then spent the rest of the dive swimming in the sea. Since you are not around any coral and the wall is about 80 feet below you, there is not much else to see on this dive, just blue water. After the first dive, we went back to the reef where the water was calmer and had lunch, then out for our second dive. It took about 10 minutes to find the Whale Sharks this dive, but we saw two at the same time and for about 5 minutes. It's equally as amazing the second time as it is the first.
I decided not to go out again Wednesday and Thursday. I figured, it really can't get much better than this. Next time I am around the Whale Shark I will go again, but for this trip, I am elated with what I saw.
