danbarkerimages
Plankton predator
Whale Shark (Rhincodon typus)
I've just returned from a trip in the Philippines which has a number of places which are known to have whale shark aggregations.
One is close to an international transport route and there is considerable tourist activity in the area. No doubt grateful for the tourist revenue, the local people are known to feed the whale sharks and this is generally frowned upon by the conservation community.
The second, generally more accepted, tourist-friendly location is further north. There, the tourist interactions are apparently managed more comprehensively. However, I had heard that there had been attempts at herding of the sharks towards the end of the period in which the whale sharks are known to appear.
The third location was in the waters around Southern Leyte. There are no maps pinpointing specific 'spots' and the dive centre I spoke to was careful not to offer guarantees of a sighting. Notwithstanding that I was much less likely to see one, I decided this would be where I would go and have a look for them.
The day this image was taken, we'd spent half a day on 'Mind Games' a boat operated by Southern Leyte Divers (SLD). We had moored off a small village and collected half a dozen spotters from the village, whose canoes were daisy-chained behind our boat and towed to the waters off a peninsula (where sharks presumably had been seen previously). The canoes then fanned out and began searching. The water was silky calm but the sky was super cloudy and ironically the stillness filled the water with reflections, making spotting extremely hard and at about 2.30pm we stopped looking and decided to go for a dive before returning to our island.
I think perhaps I might have felt more disappointment when we ultimately gave up the search if the whole experience hadn't been so well managed. Firstly SLD had been honest about the risks of not seeing a whale shark and that we didn't, reinforced the fact that these animals were really just doing their own thing. Secondly, the involvement of the local spotters made me feel like there were real, serious attempts being made at reducing the pressure on local fish stocks by making jobs that used marine resources in a sustainable way. Having spent the day on an awesome outrigger boat scanning the sea, I'd had a pretty lovely day anyway.
Anyway, we descended for our dive at the opposite end of the bay to where we'd searched for the sharks. We were straight into a pretty strong current so the dive became a drift dive that followed a wall back into the bay. I'd sprung a leak in my sync chord bulkhead and had no artificial lighting when this adolescent whale shark appeared down-current of us, and just cruised past us.
I had perhaps 10 seconds to kick diagonally up-current to get alongside it and I was able to rattle off about four shots before it passed me like a baby submarine and I submitted to the current.
The encounter may have been brief, but it was its sheer unexpectedness that made it so special.
Notwithstanding that I didn't get any 'classic' photographs I'm so glad I took the road less traveled out of Southern Leyte.
Plankton predator
Whale Shark (Rhincodon typus)
I've just returned from a trip in the Philippines which has a number of places which are known to have whale shark aggregations.
One is close to an international transport route and there is considerable tourist activity in the area. No doubt grateful for the tourist revenue, the local people are known to feed the whale sharks and this is generally frowned upon by the conservation community.
The second, generally more accepted, tourist-friendly location is further north. There, the tourist interactions are apparently managed more comprehensively. However, I had heard that there had been attempts at herding of the sharks towards the end of the period in which the whale sharks are known to appear.
The third location was in the waters around Southern Leyte. There are no maps pinpointing specific 'spots' and the dive centre I spoke to was careful not to offer guarantees of a sighting. Notwithstanding that I was much less likely to see one, I decided this would be where I would go and have a look for them.
The day this image was taken, we'd spent half a day on 'Mind Games' a boat operated by Southern Leyte Divers (SLD). We had moored off a small village and collected half a dozen spotters from the village, whose canoes were daisy-chained behind our boat and towed to the waters off a peninsula (where sharks presumably had been seen previously). The canoes then fanned out and began searching. The water was silky calm but the sky was super cloudy and ironically the stillness filled the water with reflections, making spotting extremely hard and at about 2.30pm we stopped looking and decided to go for a dive before returning to our island.
I think perhaps I might have felt more disappointment when we ultimately gave up the search if the whole experience hadn't been so well managed. Firstly SLD had been honest about the risks of not seeing a whale shark and that we didn't, reinforced the fact that these animals were really just doing their own thing. Secondly, the involvement of the local spotters made me feel like there were real, serious attempts being made at reducing the pressure on local fish stocks by making jobs that used marine resources in a sustainable way. Having spent the day on an awesome outrigger boat scanning the sea, I'd had a pretty lovely day anyway.
Anyway, we descended for our dive at the opposite end of the bay to where we'd searched for the sharks. We were straight into a pretty strong current so the dive became a drift dive that followed a wall back into the bay. I'd sprung a leak in my sync chord bulkhead and had no artificial lighting when this adolescent whale shark appeared down-current of us, and just cruised past us.
I had perhaps 10 seconds to kick diagonally up-current to get alongside it and I was able to rattle off about four shots before it passed me like a baby submarine and I submitted to the current.
The encounter may have been brief, but it was its sheer unexpectedness that made it so special.
Notwithstanding that I didn't get any 'classic' photographs I'm so glad I took the road less traveled out of Southern Leyte.