Words and Photos by Mark Steele

The
engine slowed down and settled in to idle. It was late afternoon and
the intense heat of the day had lowered by a few degrees, the sun
tingled on my sunburnt face. Our boat bobbed up and down in the waters
of the Sea of Cortez; the city of La Paz just off in the distance. My
fellow divers and I looked quizzically at our dive guide, mystified as
to why we’d suddenly stopped in the middle of nowhere.

The
skipper of our boat was staring at our guide, who was in turn standing
on the bow, gazing fixedly out towards the waters around us; in curious
silence we all followed his gaze trying to find the reason for our
sudden cessation. Slowly our guide gestured towards the waters beyond; I turned my gaze but could not see anything interesting, until I noticed faint shadows moving in the water. “Get your gear on,”
our guide instructed in his thick Mexican accent, “Whale Sharks!” Evan,
my dive buddy, a pool digger from Los Angeles lit up and a wide grin
spread across his face. “I’ve been trying to see these things for over ten years!” he shouted excitedly,
“This is going to be incredible!” We hurriedly put our wet suits and
masks back on as the boat circled back around, and on the guide’s
instruction we dropped off the side of the small white boat in to the
sea below. Mildly disorientated, it took me a second to gain my
bearings, then suddenly I recoiled in horror; I was face to face with a
monster.

In
front of me, the biggest fish I have ever seen, its massive gaping void
of a mouth, was just metres away; with my heart beating furiously and a
thrashing of my fins I swam frantically trying to avoid being swallowed
whole. Thankfully, despite my fears, Whale Sharks are filter feeders,
and thus have very little interest in eating humans. They are
one of only three filter feeding shark species and their massive mouths
grow up to 1.5m (4.9 ft) across, and house up to 350 rows of fine teeth
which they use to filter out plankton from the large quantities of
water they take in. Their name is somewhat confusing, to clear the
matter up - Whale Sharks are sharks, not whales; although they do look
like whales, not sharks.

Having
swum clear from its oncoming path, I was now side on to this ambling
giant; my fear had subsided, and was replaced with the awe of being in
the presence of such a magnificent sight. Whale Sharks swim very
slowly, a mere 5 km per hour, due to the fact they use their entire
bodies to swim, a rare characteristic in fish; fortunately this made it
possible for me to k Read More...