Whale Shark Pictures

Yesterday about 20 of the Wardroom officers charted a small catamaran and took a trip along the coast of Djibouti to search for whale sharks. Usually pelagic creatures capable of diving to about 2300 feet, they roam tropical waters and come closer to shore in heavier populations when the density of their food source, plankton, increases. The horn of Africa is one of the few places worldwide to see them predicably en masse, during the relative winter months from November to February.

For at least 13 years, since I first learned to SCUBA dive and snorkeled in tropical waters have I had a strong desire to swim with whale sharks, the largest fish species in the ocean, reportedly up to 65 feet long and weighing in excess of 50,000 pounds. So little is known about their behavior. They usually reproduce about age 30 and it is though that they live between 70-100 years. They are oviviviparous, meaning that they have eggs that hatch into live yound into the womb, and it has been discovered that as many as 300 live young approximately 15 inches in length can be birthed from a gravid female.

They are known to be a threatened species although they are widespread in tropical waters and even worshiped by the Vietnamese as a diety.

They swim about 3mph as they feed near the surface, which is a very brisk pace for most snorkelers. Of the 12 or so that we encountered over several hours in the morning, I was only able to keep up with one of them for about 20 mintues, which was quite a workout! The larges one I swam with was about 25 feet.

It was the best day of my deployment so far, and easily, one of the most memorable days of my life.

After snorkeling in the morning, several of us went SCUBA diving on a reef down to about 70 feet. At one point a 20 foot whale shark swam directly above us, a site I would have considered terrifying if I did not previously know what type of shark was in the water. We saw a tremendous variety of fishes, invertibrates, and corals--a healthy reef from about 10-50 feet. Most notable were several morays, lionfish, and clownfish.