WHALE SHARKS

The late fall and early winter time mean one thing in the coastal waters of Djibouti: WHALE SHARK time. Every winter, these truly magnificent fish swim west bound up the bay in Djiboutian coastal waters (well, actually, I am told this is the time of year that they migrate all around the eastern coast of Africa…at least in the waters just to the north and south of the equator.) I must confess that I am ignorant as to exactly why they are migrating but they do. And in doing so, the swim relatively close to shore in the coastal waters around here, feeding on plankton as they go.
The fortunate thing for those of us out here in CJTF-HOA is that the good folks at MWR (Morale Welfare and Recreation) managed to lay on some charter boats to allow us the opportunity to swim with the Whale Sharks. So, naturally, there wasn’t any way I was going to pass up a chance to actually see these guys in the wild.
We had to depart Camp Lemonier early in the morning, So Rob, Kim and I caught the charter bus with the sunrise out to the docks in the Port Of Djibouti. Once there, we loaded up and were headed out along the coast for our big adventure. The Chartered boat was a large traditional Djiboutian fishing boat that had been converted for charter and dive operations, and we were joined by approximately 20 other folks from the camp.
The trip out was awesome….calm waters, slight cool breeze blowing and not a cloud in the sky. It took us about an hour and half to get to the initial point, where we anchored at got a chance to dive on a shallow reef while awaiting the arrival of the sharks. The reef was probably the most pristine I have seen since coming on this trip. I saw all sorts of fish, a moray eel, and blue spotted ray and a sea turtle. It was incredible.
We soon got the call that whale sharks had been spotted, so we loaded up in the boat and headed up the coast line to find them. About ten minutes later….one of the guides saw the tale tell signs of the tall dorsal fins protruding just above the water while the sharks swim slowly along, feeding. It was time to swim with the sharks.
We loaded up into smaller, faster boats with outboard motors and quickly took off after the sharks. While waiting for the boats to get to the sharks, we all put on our snorkeling gear, to be ready to jump overboard as quickly as possible. As soon as a guide would spot the sharks, the little boats would speed up ahead of them, cut the power to the motor and we would jump of the boat into the path of the sharks. (Yeah, I know, it sounds a bit strange to be jumping out of a perfectly good boat into the path of oncoming sharks…).
SPLASH! You would hit the water…wait for all the bubbles to clear, and then,…..looming out of the dark, deep blue color of the sea, this HUGE creature would be swimming right towards you. It was amazing-these animals are so big, and so beautiful, and they just don’t care that you are there. They are busy eating the plankton…and you just have to get out of the way.
The first shark I saw had to be at least 18 feet long. She was just swimming along, seeming effortless, with her big tail swinging gracefully back and forth. I quickly changed direction and began to swim parallel with her, less than a foot from pectoral fins and gills. I could see her looking at me with her eye…simply amazing. I had to really swim pretty quickly to keep up, even though this shark looked like she was just swimming along with no effort. Every now and then, she would find a dense pocket of plankton, and she would open her mouth wide, arch her back and filter a tremendous amount of sea water through her gills, getting a nice mouthful of the tiny creatures. One could think of this as a sort of whale shark floating buffet, I guess.
All in all it was a fantastic day. I love the water as it is, and having to opportunity to swim with these animals is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Rob and Kim had a blast as well….getting the same chance as I did to swim up close and personal with a whale shark.
It is times like these that make me thankful that I signed my name on the dotted line. Sometimes, the military opens up doors that would otherwise never been open to you…and it makes you realize that in the big scheme of things, this is a pretty good job!