Whale Shark!

[Dive Bunnie]

Wow! The whale sharks seem to be liking Sharm at the moment. Some of our guests saw their second whale shark on a trip yesterday in Tiran. (Bear in mind that Sharm is not usually known for it's whale shark sightings).
Soooo not fair! I have lived here for three years now and have still yet to see one… ever…
So how awesome is that? Well I guess my turn will come.

[Dive Bunnie]

Yes, I finally saw my first whale shark today!!! Woo Hoo.

We were on our way back from the Thistlegorm and suddenly the boat engine cut out, so we thought there was a problem first of all, then seeing a fin, I thought "ooo dolphins, how cute" then to my huge joy I saw my first whale shark!

It was about 3m long and absolutely beautiful, gracefully meandering through the water, flanked by a a host of little pilot fish, all very lovely. Fantasic.

[waterbabe]

They don't exist!!! Everybody knows that!!!

Ah wish I had been there.

[Dive Bunnie]

Adding to our whale shark story, Jilly finally got to see her first the other day too, and guess where… in the Gardens (one of our most local of local dive sites!!). She has been waiting to see one for 9 years!

And, yesterday Annette, Mark and Bryn all got the chance to snorkel (and some of them got to dive) with a whale shark for a good 10 -15 mins!!!

Meanwhile I was sat on the bus waiting for them, having been quite impressed with my double eagle ray sighting off the beach… that is until I spoke to Annette of course!!! ;D

[Dive Bunnie]

Yep two whale sharks in two weeks! I have only been diving for six years, and three of those have been spent working here in Sharm, so pretty much in the water every day, and this is the first time I have ever had the privilege to see this wonderful creature.
And, yesterday I had the even more special treat of swimming with a beautiful youngster! He or she was only about 4m long, but stunning. We swam side by side for quite a while, the shark barely twitching its tail and me finning for the love of God to keep up.
I did duck dive down to face it at one point at which time it turned to face me and even gave a whale shark version of a smile!!! Wow! What a moment. ;D

[Dive Bunnie]

Wow I can't believe it!

Off we were on our way to Tiran and we had barely left the jetty when there were shouts of "whale shark!" coming from another boat. We all hung over the bow to take a look and could see a vague smudge of pale green at depth, but not enough to warrant jumping in at this point. So after a bit of a search, we went back to our cups of tea and usual pre-dive chit chat.

I was on the phone to Mark when the engine stops and once again I hear cries of "whale shark!", so I hang up on poor Mark, grab my fins and am shouting "is it ok to jump??!" before I have stopped for breath.

Yes it's ok, so I'm in and swimming on my own with this beautiful whale shark. A different one to last time, no scar on the head, but a scrape on its back that looks like a bit of a close call. Amazingly I can keep up, though somehow I think that might be because the shark was just ambling along, not particularly fussed about getting anywhere specific.

Before long I was joined by the rest of our boat, including the skipper!! And we were all finning like lunatics to keep up. At one point I over took it and was able to look into its mouth before realising I was a bit close and ran the risk of getting run over!!!

We spent 25 minutes with this beauty.

Fantastic!!! ;D

[bubblemaker]

OMG!! Have never heard of stuff like that in Sharm. Have I been going at the wrong time of year??

[Dive Bunnie]

Ok so lots of Sharmers may be saying "whale shark shmayle shark" at the moment, but what we need to remember is that despite the fact that we seem to be seeing them every day, it is not usual! So we should appreciate every minute that they deign to stay with us.
Anyway, we had another chance to swim with them this week, first was near Sodfa (near Pinky's Wall) and then the next day, at Ras Nasrani, we had one turn up on our dive!!! How fantastic! That was a first for me. It just quietly slid past us as we went along our dive, and was enormous. Very very coool.
There was also another three on the surface after our dive! The rest of the group were already in snorkling with one when we surfaced, and then another couple turned up for us to get a chance to look, see. Unbelievable. Sharm really does seem to be quite something else this year.

[sharkbabe]

Hmmm how to make the rest of us jealous!