Whale Sharks

A couple of miles from us is a concentration of Whale Sharks.  At one time I used to do dolphin tours up in North Carolina taking people out and teaching them about dolphin in their natural environment.  In the United States we have the Marine Mammal Protection Act which lays down strict guidelines and penalties   for approaching any ocean mammal.  These rules were mostly written to protect whales from large tour boats and it states that you can not feed them, swim with them, touch them, coral them, as well as how close you can get and for how long.  Whales often do not survive collisions with boats.  I disappointed many a tourist telling them that they could not touch or swim with the dolphin.  And in most cases, when I explained the health hazard touching posed to the animal and the hazards of swimming with the dolphin in open ocean (it was mating season) they were fine with it.  As you may imagine, the big Marine Parks that let you do all these things are not on the top of my vacation plans.  It was a slow day on the boat and we all needed a break so we decided to take 8 ft inflatable around the point of the Magohty and have a look at these huge animals.  Just as we got around the point we were met by a pod of dolphin.  We stopped the boat and sat, allowing the dolphin to investigate us or not.

The teenagers of the pod are the most curious and are the first to show up

They did for a few minutes and then moved on with their lives.  Next we got sight of a cluster of tour boats and something splashing in the water.  When we got close enough we could see what was going on.  The boats were in a tight circle around a small Whale Shark.  There were about thirty tourist with them and at least half of them were in the water on top of the animal as it tried to move.  These giants are not marine mammals and are not covered by the law but there are guide lines for being around them.  I didn’t see anything going on that would be good for the Whale Shark.  We decided not to take part in the harassment of them.  We motored on and eventually ended up on the beach.

Here's poor Shannon trying to find and empty spot on the beach for her beach towel

On the way back we saw a school of rays and ran into our dolphin friends.

You can call me Ray, or you can call me Jay, or.....

They were mating again, Flipper, Flipper, Flipper, you’re going to go blind if you don’t stop.  So, sorry I don’t have a picture of a huge Whale Shark, you can find them on-line.  I just have the picture of one outlined by humans with no regard for other living things.

All aboard!