It saddens me that such gentle creatures could have been subjected to the brutal forces of human fishing practices.

The Basking Shark is the 2nd largest shark in the ocean; under that of the Whale Shark. The Whale Shark is also on the endangered species list – once again mainly due to commercial fishing practices which were rife through third world countries. Thankfully with the combined effort of researchers and passionate individuals many of these countries have now banned the commercial fishing for Whale Shark. Our industry here in Australia; have been the leaders of Eco Tourism with Whale Sharks and have been used as an example to teach these other countries that a Whale Shark is more valuable to the countries economy alive rather than dead.

The Whale Shark unlike the basking shark were mainly killed for food; their meat being referred to as ‘Tofu Meat’ due to it’s tender white texture. The article that I refer to here – suggests the primary reason for the slaughter of thousands of Basking Sharks was primarily because they were classified as ‘pests’ by the commercial fishing industry – due to their large size they were often caught up in nets which were set out for salmon. The article also says the main way they would kill the sharks was with a blade fastened to the front of the boats hull – where they would senslessly cut them in half.

Other marine life were also targets; such as seals, sea lions, black bears, mergansers, and kingfishers.

Thankfully humans are becoming more aware – the only question now is – is it too late?

It is a really interesting article – you can go here to read it.
http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/opinion/article/519239

Our passengers were still thrilled at what they saw during the day and most of them got to use their repeat tour and those who were unable to stay on to complete the trip have got their no sighting policy open for 3 years; they all said they were coming back; yay – so we will see them again in the future.

It is beyond me that there is a couple of days where we won’t see a shark and then we will find 3 of them the very next tour~! I guess this is nature at it’s best! Always keeping us in suspense.

Shark # 1: FEMALE, approx 4m in length; approx 3 swims on this shark

Shark # 2: MALE, approx 7.5m in length; approx 2 swims on this shark

Shark # 3: MALE, approx 3min length; only 1 swim on this shark

Needless to say everybody had a fantastic day and were absolutely exhausted by the time the fruit platter and champers rolled up. All of our customers were absolutely thrilled with the day thaqt they had.

“AWESOME day! Great people – very professional; great weather; recommend it totally” Anna & Mark

Today we swam with 2 sharks, 1 was approx 3 1/2m and the other a little bigger at 4 1/2.

Some dear friends joined our tour today; Vix and Randall have worked in the dive industry up here for some years but are leaving town to move to the big city; Vix decided she wanted to have one last final Whale Shark spot; so went in and did it 4 1/2 months pregnant – so we have now taken claim to having the youngest child EVER swim with a shark lol.

We actually have a lot of pregnant women do the tour – they tell me it’s because they’re making the most of their freedom before having to care for someone around the clock – makes sense!~

“What a fantastic, AMAZING day! 7 snorkels with whale shark – an experience of a lifetime – Thankyou!” Karen and Dave Stratford, Geoff, Anne and Holly

Tonight myself and our 2 gem spotters – Yoshi and Emily all attended the DEC (Dept of Environment and Conservation)
Whale Shark Interaction Guiding course.

In previous years I didn’t believe it would be necessary for me to attend as I work in the shop; but decided to support ‘the team’ and go this year. I am SO GLAD that I did; I learned so much!!

I have been doing this job for hmm well; this is my 5th season; and I love every second of it! I do wish I got to go on the boat more; but someone has to hold the office together :)

So the night was information packed; DID YOU KNOW that when the last lot of satelling tagging was done on the Whale Sharks; they were recorded going to gepths of 1500m; that is when the tags stopped working!!! How AMAZING is that??

And that big 18m shark that was killed in Taiwan years ago; the one with the 300 babies inside it at ALL DIFFERENT sizes of development; well a few of the babies who were at about 50cm in length were still alive; so they sent them to an underwater observatory in Japan!

Sad about the mother; but we would never have know that the Whale Sharks produce in such a way without the information being recorded.

There is so little known about many of the Whale Sharks characteristics; so I guess any information is useful!

Today was another beautiful day on the reef; with magnificent snorkeling and glorious sunshine!

As mentioned in my post yesterday; we rely on them swimming on the surface becasue they want to not becasue they have to; so there are naturally times when it is difficult to get a swim with them.

On a positive the day was magnificent and we had a BRILLIANT snorkel and swam with some turtles and lots of beautiful fish and still finished the day with a chilled glass of champers!

Although dissapointed by the sharks; everyone on board still had a joyful day; basking in the warm Ningaloo sun, swimming in our turquoise water which is still about 28 degrees!

After yesterdays fantastic Whale Shark Interaction; today has been especially dissapointing; we didn’t get to swim with a Whals Shark today.

The spotter plane saw quite a few but the sharks wouldn’t stay at the surface, whenever the boats got close to them – or one of our ’spotters’ jumped in the water; the sharks would dive.

Who knows why? There could be several reasons; however the fact that the Whale Shark is a fish and only comes to the surface to feed means we are relying on them to stay up for the swims.

Never mind I guess this is nature at it’s best; hopefully we’ll have better luck tomorrow!

I am officially BANNED from the very first tour – history has proven that when I am on the first tour; we don’t see a shark – so I have been unanimously voted off the boat for the very first tour!

Today we swam with a gorgeous 3 and a half metre Whale Shark; who seemed to be as interested in us as we were in him. He turned often to check the punters out and circled the groups when they were in the water; thrilling our swimmers to no end!

We were also fortunate enough to see some majestic Manta Rays; unfortunately we couldn’t swim with them as they were too close the reef and it wasn’t safe, but they were fantastic to watch!

We have so many pre-bookings for April – with many days already completely booked out; so if you’re coming to swim with these unreal fish – best be booking ahead to secure your seat :)

Kat