Dancing with Whale-Sharks

The author swimming with the whale shark

Moment of truth
I was never to know, who of the two had gotten it right. Or so I thought. But already the next day would give me the surprise of my life!
I was returning from the day's trip with a group of divers, as Baehd, our Thai boatswain, cries out and points to the port side. And yes, only about 100 meters away we can see the fin of a big shark plow its way through the still surface of the Andaman Sea.
Everybody on the boat is at once feverishly digging for their masks, fins and snorkels, tucked away at the bottom of their scuba gears. I give orders to stop the engine and the boat glides slowly towards the shark. As the distance narrows down to ten meters, we all slide soundlessly over the gunwale.
Thoughts are racing through my head. What was I going to meet in the next seconds? A frenzied, man-eating "tiger" or a peaceful, plankton-feeding whale-shark?! This will be the moment of truth.
So far I can see nothing. Just the blues and my diver friends. Long, heart-stopping milliseconds pass slowly...
And then I see it! The shark is heading right towards me, its mouth is more then a meter wide and half open!
And it IS a whale-shark. Thank God.

Precious experience
The big animal passes us by in a distance of only 2-3 meters. What a relief to know, that it only eats plankton! Its belly is white, the back is grayish black with white dots. Here and there the dots form distinct lines across the back. I guess that is why the divers yesterday had mistaken the "whale" for a "tiger".

Coming right at you...

The beautiful, powerful and gentle creature graces us with a long visit. For about ten minutes we enjoy being together with one of the dive-world's great icons. Then one of my guests grabs at the enormous tail-fin. At once the shark gets frightened. Gathering speed it dives away and disappears. Just like that.
Whale-sharks are shy by nature and easy to frighten off. They have sensitive fins and heads. Therefore it should be a golden rule among divers, never to bother or frighten the animals in any way. I feel annoyed that one of my divers forgot that. And now the wonderful shark is gone!
Meeting a whale-shark and swimming together with it is a precious experience. The whale-shark is to divers, what Arnold Schwarzenegger is to body builders, Michael Jackson is to pop fans and Bill Gates is to computer nerds. You worship them. You might meet one of them once. Maybe even twice. And you would live on happy memories the rest of your life.
I was happy with my whale-shark encounter. I certainly did not expect to see any more of the gentle giant. But I did. There was a lot more to come!

Like a war-machine
The next day a whale-shark was ready waiting for us not more than 400 meters out from Patong Beach. I couldn't believe my eyes. It was bigger then the first - about 8 meters - and even more shy. Already after 3 or 4 minutes its huge tail-fin waved us goodbye. I followed it for a short distance by a fast surface-crawl. The ocean was not more than 7 or 8 meters deep, so I managed to stay on its trail for a while. Then the shark disappeared, much to my dismay.
I kept on in the same direction. I dared not really hope for another encounter. I had had so much luck already... But the animal did appear again! Dramatically the huge animal came swooping at me from the deep like a war-machine, swimming almost vertically up towards the surface. It was going to open its mouth... why? Was it angry at me? Was it going to swallow me?
Of course not. I had been looking so hard for the shark, that a big school of fish had escaped my attention. The school had gathered right under me, between the whale-shark and me. This school was the center of the giant's alertness. His attack was directed at the silvery shining fishes, not at me. But why this gentle creature so fervently would attack this innocent shoal and what these fishes had done to irritate it, I could not figure out for the world.

That's what I call vacuuming!

A real close up...

The shoal was hovering about 30 centimeters under the surface and the whale-shark was coming on fast. I had to maneuver a bit, so as not to being hit by its head. The big jaws opened wide, sucked in one third of the school of fish and created a maelstrom of air that ended way down in its mouth.
I was so close, I could have touched the monster's palate. Which I did not. Instead I focused on staying clear of its head. The whale-shark repeated the stunt three times and the big school was transformed to a few confused groups of little fishes. Now that's what I call vacuuming!
Breathless and honored by being allowed to witness this seldom and exclusive show I watched its star exit the scene. The sole but well-earned applause was the rapid beat of my heart.

A whole group of whale-sharks!
What I had seen and experienced on these two days in November, had been a string of extreme luck, I knew. But it was not over yet by far...
Within the next ten days my guests, students, friends and I enjoyed daily contact with whale-sharks under the waves of Patong bay. Using snorkels, not scubas, we had great freedom of movement and speed. Also the bubbles from our tanks would have disturbed the shy animals.
By photographing the sharks and comparing their sizes, their scars and the patterns of dots we established that at least seven different sharks were visiting Patong Beach at the same time.
One can wonder why such a great number of whale-sharks collectively would gather in such a relatively small bay. Whale-sharks do not live in groups. But I refuse to believe, they all just happened to drop by accidentally! Maybe it was the large number of fish-schools and the richness of plankton that attracted them via an unknown tracking sense or apparatus.

Our dances with the whale-sharks lasted ten days. On the fourth of December they disappeared as quickly and surprisingly as they had come...
Whale-sharks are in the habit of visiting their favorite places on a regular schedule. So if you are visiting Phuket around November, don't miss out on the chance of meeting a whale-shark just a few fin-strokes away from your hotel!