Whale Sharks

Whale sharks rock! Today I went snorkeling with a beautiful 9m whale shark- what an incredible experience.

Getting a boat in and out of Tofo is an interesting experience. There is not public dock or mooring line so you have to launch the boat from shore every time. Everyone gets to the bow of the boat and pushes it around so that the boat is facing the ocean. Then we go on either side and pull the boat into waste deep water at which point the girls are allowed to jump in over the side and grab a seat. Then, the boys drag the boat a little further in and when the motors can be lowered, the boys jump in and off we go through the waves holding on for dear life.

Then comes the fun part of looking for the whale sharks. Two people at the bow and one perched high up on a chair, they scan the ocean for something dark and moving. We zigzag back and forth parallel to the shoreline and wait. We were out for about 40 minutes before anything was actually spotted but then there she was. Fins, mask and snorkel on, we slip into the water as best we can and follow. Now when I say slip in, it is not nearly so graceful as that. It is nearly impossible to enter gracefully with you have fins on and are trying to slide in over the side of rubber, inflated boat. However, it's important to try not to make too much splash as it scares away the shark.

Once in the water, it's every man for himself. There were three boats around the shark, which meant approximately 30 swimmers. I was lucky that I was at the front of the pack for most of the swim, but if you got left behind a little all you saw was the bubbles and fins of the person in front of you. I did have a couple of unfortunate moments where I ended up behind this guy who kept flashing me as he pulled his swimsuit out from between his butt cheeks, but that's another story.

We were lucky today for many reasons. 1. She was a girl. Tofo gets a lot of whalesharks but most are immature males. It seems that Tofo is the equivalent of an all male junior high. 2. She was a little bit older. Whalesharks reach their maturity at about 10m and she was around 9. 3. She was just out for a leisurely stroll and she wasn't really concerned that we were around. She put up with us for about 40 minutes which apparently is almost unheard of. 4. She didn't swim quickly. It was quite easy to keep up with her.

All in all, an excellent first experience. I could definitely get used to this.