Cubicle Throwdown

tales of a serial expat

My First Whale Shark!

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I have crossed nearly everything off my “diving in Roatan” bucket list – remember when I saw a pod of wild dolphins, TWO hammerhead sharks, and found a GoPro Hero3??


Well, the only thing left on the list was a whale shark. To see one of these gentle giants (they can reach up to 60ft long!) was one of my lifelong dreams, and one of the reasons I ended up settling in Roatan…they are often spotted here and by the next island over, Utila, and I was determined to see one.


I had so many close calls, but pretty much everyone else except me saw one. I whined to my boat captain constantly to find me one, and I was so jealous every time someone here updated their Facebook with, “WHALESHARK OMG GUYZ”.


Yesterday, it was MY turn!!


I was sitting at the desk at the shop working and my boat captain came in and said, “Get your bathing suit and get in the boat NOW. I think there’s a whale shark out there.” Well, you don’t have to say those words to me twice. I grabbed my bikini, fins, mask and GoPro and we RAN to the boat and took off.


We saw three fishing boats spinning madly around the tuna boil… that usually is where you can find whale sharks, as the tuna show up to feed on the same little creatures that the whale sharks do. There were no other dive boats… I was so lucky. I got into my gear, got the GoPro ready and sat on the gunnel waiting for my captain to tell me when to jump. I was shaking with excitement once he actually sighted the whale shark – I’ve had a few false alarms with tuna boils before, and it’s so disappointing.


He finally said “Get in!!” (after telling me to watch out for black tip and mako sharks who try to get in on some tuna action and accidentally chomp snorkelers fins every once in awhile…!!) and I jumped. She was 50ft in front of me and I could see the outline as soon as I got in. I let a wild “WOOHOO” out to my captain and finned over to her. The size, you guys, I can’t even explain what it’s like to be 10ft from a creature that big, in the water right beside them. She was about 30-35ft long, just an absolutely massive shark (thank goodness they are filter feeders, haha). It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. 


I took some videos with my GoPro and lost her as she went down for a dive. She came back again twice – I got in a total of three times with her until she left for good. I had her all to myself – just fishermen in boats concerned with catching tuna… and me in the water with the biggest shark in the world. What an experience.



I recommend turning your sound down a bit – this was my first whale shark and I did an awful lot of yelling and squealing. I also forgot my snorkel, and my bubbles are pretty loud. Don’t worry, I’ve put clever captions on the video even if the sound is down 🙂








Guys, make sure to follow me on Facebook and Twitter … there’s lots of extras posted on those that don’t make it onto the blog. Plus it makes me see whale sharks. So there’s that.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Camels & Chocolate says

    Ahhhhh! This is fantastic! The whale shark is my holy grail of diving, and I've yet to see one (despite two separate dive vacations to Roatan). You lucky dog, you!

    P.S. Were you at all a little scared? Though I'm obsessed with them, I think the sheer size and being next to that underwater might freak me out just a wee bit!

    • CubicleThrowdown says

      Thanks Kristin!! Hope you'll get to see one soon. I had to wait over a year and a half, so I feel like I earned my whale shark 🙂 And nope, thought I would be scared, but I was just so damn excited. Although I got a little nervous when she put her tail so close to me – some snorkelers have gotten smacked by them before and it isn't fun!

  4. Molly Yonderblog says

    Congratulations Rika! What an experience! We swam with a whale shark on the Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia and it was without doubt one of the best experiences of our lives. It's hard to describe how graceful, and BIG they are! How special to have this experience all by yourself! Thank-you so much for sharing the video!

  7. bobleliv@gmail.com says

    Wow! What a gorgeous whale shark. I saw one in the Maldives during a livaboard, but was far from alone with this experience. But still, with 15 other people kicking the waters around me, still an amazing experience. I want more!

    • CubicleThrowdown says

      That's awesome that you saw one though! It's a once in a lifetime (or none 🙁 ) for a lot of people. I'm secretly so happy I didn't have to share her with anyone!

  8. Steph (@ 20 Years Hence) says

    This is so incredible, Rika! We still have tons of things to cross off of our dive spotting list and Whale Sharks are right up there at the top. I think seeing one in the wild would be so electrifying; they are SO HUGE! I've already warned Tony that when we do spot these magnificent beasts for ourselves, I will undoubtedly pee from the excitement of it all! 😀

    • CubicleThrowdown says

      I think they are at the top of pretty much every diver's list! It was really quite the experience, at first I just thought I'd be all, "ahhhh WHALE SHARK" but when I was coming up on her the first time my mind flashed back to being in the Osaka Aquarium in 2009 and seeing a whale shark for the first time, watching it for over half an hour (much to the chagrin of my friends who wanted to move on to the next exhibit) and thinking "man, I want to be in there with that shark SO BAD"…. and all the times in Roatan I've had such close calls to see one… and how I was on a little island in the Caribbean as a dive instructor in the water by myself with a 35ft shark. Mind = blown.

  11. Colleen Brynn says

    Wow! I'm watching this in class right now… what a treat! This would be amazing to see live.. one of those things that's REALLY hard to explain to someone just how amazing it is. You really have to experience it for yourself I think. I can only imagine how fast your heart was thumping!

  12. Dana says

    OMG!! What an amazing experience! So jealous – and happy that you got to see one. Also…. what a set of free diving lungs you seem to have here! Happy High Fives!