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Wetpixel Whale Sharks 2015 Report: Day 9 and 10

So my last post wondered what effect the storms would have, and the sad thing is that the whale sharks seem to have dived deep to avoid them. On both Wednesday and Thursday there have been storms, and the sharks, although present have been very few in number. Perhaps they do not like getting wet!

Nevertheless, we set out as planned:

We have had a few encounters, but nothing like the volume and quality of the experiences we had on both Sunday and Tuesday.

So today, we set off go the green water North of Contoy Island, partly to see if we could find any mantas, and partly to see some new scenery.

North Contoy is in an MPA and the bird life is stunning, with lots of frigate birds, pelicans and even flamingos. We anchored up for cerviche on a shallow reef and had fun trying to focus our cameras on things that were not whale sharks!

We sadly bid goodbye to our second group today, but also greet our third and last group for the year. We hope that the sharks come back in numbers tomorrow and are crossing our fingers for more amazing encounters over the enxt few days.

Wetpixel Whale Sharks 2015 Report: Day 11.

Our third group’s first day started with a team greeting and briefing at the Playa Media Luna at 7.15. In no time at all, we were off in the golf carts down to the jetty, and shortly thereafter, the ropes were cast off and we set off in pursuit of sharks!

There were still some remnants of the storms of earlier in the week and the journey out to find the sharks was bit “lumpy”. With in hour or so, we had found a group of around 20 sharks, and the group were all able to start shooting.

As the sharks were quite spread out, it meant that we had to swim for the images! The captains and cres of our boats also worked really hard to get us in the right positions.

It was great first day, perhaps not as busy as a few of the days earlier in the week, but still with plenty of whale sharks.

In the evening, we went for the now traditional group meal at Mininos restaurant down on the beach.

Looking forward to tomorrow…

Wetpixel Whale Sharks 2015 Report: Day 12.

Early start again, with the boats heading out at 6.45.

After about an hour, we found a group of sharks feeding, which we soon all were capturing images of!

The groups swelled in numbers, until we had probably around 80-100 sharks, although they were well spread out at the surface. This helped as it meant that the as the bulk of the boats started to arrive from 10.30 onwards, they were also pretty spread out.

Tom Gruber has a DJI Inspire quadcopter here with him, and he flew 4 sorties over the sharks. It will be great to see his footage!

I ma still trying to get the perfect silhouette….and I love being able to hang around under sharks!

Right at the end of the day, David, our captain, called me over and dropped me onto a shark in a perfect “botella”.

The sharks go into this perfect vertical orientation when they hit a patch that is particularly rich in eggs. It would seem that their tails sink and they end of in this posture. If you approach with caution, they will tolerate people approaching. It was an amazing 5 minutes with this wonderful animal!