International Whale Shark Day!
My introduction to the ocean happened before I can remember, as did my connection to it. Since childhood, the ocean has retained its magic and constant fascination for me. I have been in thrall to it my entire life. Of course, that goes for the marine life that lives there as well. A day like Whale Shark Day is always a celebration of life.
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Do you want to swim with Whale Sharks? Every summer, from May 15 until September 15, a marvelous event happens in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. Hundreds of mostly juvenile male Whale Sharks migrate to feast on plankton and fish eggs, and, perhaps, to mate. Large females have been seen in the Yucatan, but they are not common. The best time to see these sharks is late June through mid August. This aggregation is one of the largest, if not the largest, known to scientists on the planet. With drone technology, scientists can watch the aggregation and behavior of the sharks from above, but it is always more exciting to be in the water with them!
Are Whale Sharks whales or sharks? They are sharks and the largest fish in the ocean. They have huge mouths like whales and they filter feed on the smallest creatures in the ocean. These huge sharks (up to 20 meters) are completely harmless. Whale Sharks are gentle giants, and do not attack even with provocation, which is why they are endangered. They are easy for poachers to kill as they have no fear of humans or boats, they seem almost oblivious to anything except their food. There is still very little known about Whale Sharks. No one has ever seen one give birth, though a whale shark caught in a fishery in Taiwan many years ago was carrying 300 pups. The only place where female Whale Sharks are known to gather are the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador (June through November). Where do they give birth? No one knows. Two thirds of the known Whale Sharks are male. Where are all the females? The babies? No one knows. Sadly, their docile nature has made them easy targets for those who sell shark fins to the Chinese. To lose these magnificent creatures to make stringy chicken soup is sickening.
I first snorkeled with Whale Sharks in Isla Holbox in the early 2000s. We went with another family, and the kids and adults were enamored and amazed by these incredible creatures. Since then, I have taken every opportunity to see them and photograph them. I have gone with my husband, alone, and on citizen science trips with Marine Megafauna. Every time I see them I photograph them, and I make sure to get identification photos. Whale Sharks have a spot pattern just behind their gills that serve as a “fingerprint”, no two sharks are alike. I send these photographs to Wildbook for Whale Sharks, and in so doing, I contribute to the scientific knowledge of these creatures. You can do citizen science as well! When you see a whale shark, photograph it from the side! This year I took my cousin and her husband for their very first encounter with whale sharks, and they were in awe. The sheer size of these animals is amazing, and to see them and snorkel with them is a very special and exciting experience. I recommend going with Solo Buceo, a great dive and snorkel shop in Cancun. I met one of the owners on a Great White Shark Expedition, and having a close encounter with a Great White is a bonding experience! Since 2010 and my Close Encounter with a Great White Shark, Rodrigo and I have been in touch, and on expeditions. Book Solo Buceo for an amazing experience with not only Whale Sharks, but Sailfish, Cenotes, and Mantas! Rodrigo is deeply involved with Pelagic Life, a non profit in Mexico seeking to protect oceanic pelagic animals, especially sharks.
In December of this year I am co-hosting a trip to the Sea of Cortez with Red Travel Mexico, and we will be snorkeling with Whale Sharks off of La Paz! Please consider coming with us, it will be an exciting trip! The dates are Dec 3-9 and you can get more details at http://redtravelmexico.com/tour/cabo-pulmo-and-the-sea-of-cortez-with-tam-warner-minton/.
Below you can see how individual Whale Shark’s spot patterns are.
*My passion for the ocean has resulted in my first self published book! ALL FISH FACES. Check it out!
As I have said before, the Revillagigedos Archipelago is (so far!) the most exciting place I have ever dived. The big pelagic life is not only thrilling to see, but it is the only place I know of where Giant Mantas and Dolphins actually seek out humans for play. Mantas love diver’s bubbles, and dolphins like the camera flashes and the movement, they love games. I’ve been to this dive destination twice now, and I can honestly say I will go back. Here are the highlights of a great trip, taken with fun and engaging divers who are no longer strangers, on the Somar V, with the best crew and staff in Mexico!
The incredible Whale Shark is the biggest fish in the ocean! And it is such a beautiful, gentle fish! It has to be said that whale sharks probably don’t have Einstein’s IQ since they have the smallest brain in the ocean for their size, but give them a break …they help keep plankton and krill under control, which is necessary for our oceans and for life on earth. I just returned from the Yucatan peninsula where possibly the largest aggregation of whale sharks occurs, and it was a spectacular trip. Here are some Whale Shark Facts along with the photographs I took!
1. The largest fish in the ocean can grow up to 65 feet and 75,000 pounds. They are as large as many whales, and as big as, or bigger than, a city bus!
2. The largest fish in the ocean eats the smallest creatures in the ocean: tiny plankton, small fishes, and small crustaceans. They are filter feeders, they gulp the sea water through their gills, and when the water is pushed out, prey gets stuck to their gill plates. Yum!
3. Whale Sharks are sharks and do not have bones, but cartilage. Cartilage does not fossilize as well as bones do, so there is not a huge fossil record of sharks. Most of what we know of ancient sharks come from their teeth.
4. Female Whale Sharks are bigger than the males and are found in all warm oceans: Pacific, Indian and Atlantic.
5. Whale Sharks are gentle creatures and one can swim right next to the animal with no fear.
6. Each whale shark has a unique spot pattern from it’s gill to over the pectoral fins. When swimming with whale sharks, it is best to take ID photos to upload into a scientific database like www.whaleshark.org.
7. Thanks to tagging and ID photographs much more is now known about Whale Sharks compared to 10 years ago. We know they migrate thousands of miles to opportunistically feed…Mexico is a hotspot, particularly the Yucatan where tuna spawn in the summer. The whale shark may live up to 100 years!
8. It is not common to see pregnant females like the one pictured here. Much of the time one sees juvenile males. A female whale shark has been known to hold 300 fetuses. It is possible that female whale sharks may “save sperm” in order to fertilize their own eggs as they are made, but more study needs to be completed in order to know for certain.
9. Sadly, the Whale Shark is “vulnerable” according to the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) Red List. Whale Sharks are protected in most areas of the world but are still killed for their fins (for shark fin soup). Sharks are very toxic to humans so they are not a good food source, and humans have been very toxic toward sharks since we are responsible for the deaths of 75 to 100 million sharks a year.
If you wish to learn more about these fascinating sharks, check out www.marinemegafauna.org. Marine Megafauna Foundation studies large pelagic species in order to understand their ecology and protect them from illegal fishing practices. You can even adopt a shark, manta ray, or sea turtle! The proceeds go toward scientific study of the animals for conservation purposes. Marine Megafauna also offers expeditions (like the one I was just on in the Yucatan) in order to assist scientists by performing citizen science. We are all responsible for the condition of our planet, and we all need to contribute in some way. If you’d like to learn more about sharks and the state of our oceans, I recommend going to www.sharkwater.com and seeing the documentaries of Rob Stewart, or checking the BBC or Discovery Channel.
The Marine Megafauna Foundation Ray of Hope Expedition 2015 included a marine biologist (USA), a geneticist (Japan, living and working in the US), a biologist from the Maldives (a Scot by birth), a scuba instructor from the Maldives (a Kiwi, otherwise know as a New Zealander), a Penn biology major (from Mexico), a videographer (South Africa), and those of us, scuba divers and/or photographers, who care deeply about our watery world, both Canadian and US. Our mission was to photograph animals (Whale Sharks and Manta Rays) for Identification, upload to Whaleshark.org and MantaMatcher.org, and to take genetic samples from the Manta Rays of the Yucatan. We were not entirely successful with the Mantas…the elusive creatures, well, they eluded us! We did manage to get 7 or so, but we fell far short of the desired 30 samples.
Whale Sharks, on the other hand, were in abundance. The Yucatan is one of the world’s largest aggregations of whale sharks, if not the largest. We headed out in the mornings for a 90 minute boat ride to the shark area, typically just before sunrise, and seeing the dawn out on the calm Caribbean Sea was a serenely beautiful experience. Once out to the shark area (wherever the whale sharks are gathering and feeding that particular day) it became disheartening to see all the tourist boats. There must have been 50 boats on some days.
Please do not get me wrong. We are trying to conserve and preserve these animals by showing how valuable they are to tourism, and valuable they certainly are. Tourists are out in droves to see and to swim with them. 40 or 50 boats at a time can seem pretty excessive, though. The first day we hung out on the edges, swimming with the sharks who were on the periphery of the tourists. We were on a scientific vessel and had a permit to be in the water with them for study. The first day was very shark rich, and I was able to get several ID shots, as were other members of the group. The best day was ahead, however.
On the third day of the expedition we headed out looking for mantas, and skipped the whale sharks until around noon. By that time, the boats were gone. We had 30 or so whale sharks to ourselves, and one other boat. It had to have been one of the best animal encounters I have ever had. Without the hoarde of boats, one could be patient, waiting for feeding whale sharks to swim by. We didn’t have to chase them, or even swim that hard to stay up with them (they may look as though they are moving slow, but they are really going much faster than you think) because they were lazily filtering the surface of the water, knowing they were pretty much alone and in no hurry. With several boats, it gets confusing, and the sharks often have to change course to avoid snorkelers, but on this day, they were content and feeding happily on tuna spawn. Every time we got out of the water we had to brush off tuna eggs from our wetsuits and hair.
I have not been happy with the whale shot photographs I have taken over the years. On this glorious day, alone with whale sharks, I took the best photographs I have ever taken of these spotted, gentle giants. Just incredible! I’m going to save many of those photos for Fabulous Photo Friday this week! My dream has always been to watch a whale shark vertically feeding in the water, and to capture photographs of it. My dream came true with a huge, pregnant Whale Shark who had to be 40 feet long. She was immense, and it was amazing to watch her, vertical and still, while she filtered tuna spawn. Ah, she was such a beauty! And lucky for me, Dr Andrea Marshall (the Director of Marine Megafauna Foundation and Ray of Hope) was in the water and captured an incredible, once in a lifetime photo of me with the whale shark. Yes, I will be framing it! I can’t tell you how thrilling it is to have a photo of this quality! Thank you, Andrea!
I took several ID photos and uploaded them to www.whaleshark.org. It was exciting to receive a few matches, telling me that I had photographed a shark who had been photographed several times over the past 5 years. It’s also exciting NOT to receive matches, meaning I uploaded photos of sharks who were new to the system. I am thrilled to be able to assist conservation science by being a Citizen Scientist.
“In today’s world, it’s clear that our natural environment cannot be preserved and protected by the few people officially designated with this task. It will take all of us, in all parts of the world. We all need to find ways to help in this monumental task.
Citizen Science offers each of us a path to find special ways in which we can each help protect our part of the world. It’s an elegant, efficient, and engaging solution to the huge environmental problems we face in the 21st century.” www.citizenscientists.com
I cannot begin to express the wonder and the thrill of being next to these ocean pelagics. It is truly awe-inspiring…and I am so grateful I can help in their conservation. Check out http://www.citizenscientists.com/ and check out how many ways there are to help!
Western Rocky is a great dive site, 40 nautical miles from Kawthaung, Myanmar. It consists of 2 or 3 dives, the Eagles Nest and the Cave. We had 3 dives on the site, and they were all terrific. Except for my dive group (of course) everyone saw a juvenile Whale Shark! 14 feet or so! Tommi, one of the Finn twins, took a lovely photo of it. I wish I had seen it, of course, but it looks like I am still searching for a dive experience with whale sharks. Even without seeing the Whale Shark, Western Rocky is a great dive site! Here are some of my awesome finds:
