Whale Shark Pics from Southern Leyte

[ishbaby]

ahhh swimming with whale sharks, i shall go to donsol too soon!

 

[Zeeman]

Do tell....

Oh, OK, chip is over an hour away, so it's not like I don't have time...

When I went to Donsol last week, they spotted a whale shark within about 2 minutes of me getting on the boat. My camera wasn't ready - I wasn't ready, but I donned my fins and mask and jumped in like the guide said. Vis in Donsol was about a foot at the surface, thanks to the plankton, which is, of course, why the whale sharks are there.. so plankotn is my friend, but anyway...

The guide is screaming at me to head in the direction he is pointing in, so, I swim like a mofo with a pink hatted brokeback cowboy after me - of course, what no one actually told me was they position you so that you are head on with the whale shark when you jump in the water. so here I am, with 1 foot of vis, swimming like hell with my volo sports headed straight for a 28 foot whale shark. My first vision of it was it's snout about a foot from my head - I don't know if it's possible to move like a cat underwater, but man, I did it, because I came about an inch from head butting the thing, I only just got out of the way - and judging by the way it descended, it was as freaked out as I was!

I learnt to swim sideways a bit from then on, and approach them from the side and then swim along side with them. My pics are nothing like the pics on this thread, but the images in my head can never be duplicated!

Z...

 

[Zeeman]

Ish - I'll warn you guys the next time I come down and we can organise the PPD DOR (insert digit here) swim with the whalesharks weekend!

Z...

 

[fcg_vi]

The next dive we came across this yellow pygmy seahorse... I had never seen a yellow one before. But I had never seen a whale shark before today either, and I saw two, so I'm pretty stoked. The diving here is awesome!

 

[clgsamson]

Hey fcg_vi, that's where we are headed in December. Jonix, Matthew, Larry, Pakman, Subzero, Midwestdvr, my wife and I are booked and confirmed at Sogod Bay Resort.

We hope to see em...

say hi to Phil..

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

W00T!! Great photos!!

Mike, that's a great story... :lol:

 

[jigo]

The next dive we came across this yellow pygmy seahorse... I had never seen a yellow one before. But I had never seen a whale shark before today either, and I saw two, so I'm pretty stoked. The diving here is awesome!

hi. fcg_vi. are whalesharks there seasonal. if they are, when are they most likely to be seen there?

 

[clgsamson]

To the ppders...you can still join us....d/p is $50, the rest in December when we check out.

 

[Willie]

Here's another pic of the second whale shark with Ronald making an excellent 3+ minute video with his new Canon S80. I'll upload when I get some bandwidth, I'm at the resort now on their wifi. See www.sogodbayscubaresort.com

I like this one with the diver in it for perspective. What is that attached to the front of his housing? Looking forward to the video.

Willie

 

[jonix]

fcg! wow man! great pics! now i'm really excited