Hunting for a Whale Shark
About 16 years ago my family and many of our friends went for a two week boat trip specifically for diving. We were living both on the boat and sometimes in hotels located on Thailand islands. We lived on the ship, ate there, sailed from island to island and could dive up to 3 times per day. There was even night diving which is kind of cool in its own way.
The beach
One day we also went for a swim on an island where the movie "The Beach" with Leonardo DiCaprio was filmed. The island is called Phi Phi Leh Island. Very beautiful beach by the way. Every day we stopped on a different beach to swim, sometimes on a completely uninhibited islands.
One day we visited one island where Whale Sharks usually swim
They are not dangerous animals because they don't eat meat. They feast on plankton, which is a really small organism that lives in the ocean, you can't even really see it in the water it's so small. However, whale shark is so huge that it can swallow you when it opens it's huge mouth. They can get as big as 41.5 ft (12.6 meters), and that's about seven and a half people long.
This is me 16 years ago preparing for this dive
When going for this dive, I remember that my ear really hurt and I could not dive very deep. But I still decided to go, because I did not want to miss this opportunity. As I went under water my ear started to get better and I did not even feel it hurt anymore. And then suddenly out of nowhere this huge fish appeared showing off its size and majesty. It was about 23 ft (7 meters) long and so beautiful!
As it passed by we tried to catch up with it by swimming as fast as we can. I remember my legs working really hard with flippers. But we could not catch up, even thought the whale shark did not even move its tale much, it seemed that it was going for a slow swim.
It's such a pity that I did not have an underwater camera to capture all of this, but it stayed in my memory so vivid as thought it happened yesterday. I would love to go for such a diving experience once again. It was kind of scary to swim when there are also dangerous sharks around, but it was really worth it. The underwater world is very beautiful and I wish that everyone gets a chance to experience it.
Please meet our lovely team
And this is just a photo so you can get an idea of how big the whale sharks mouth really is
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