Hanging Out With Whale Sharks

About ten years ago,  my friend and sometimes film collaborator, Michael Tobias told a group of us at a party about his sublime experience swimming with whale sharks in Mexico's Sea of Cortez.  Michael's experience was part of Whale Shark Hunters of the Philippines,  a film he executive produced in 2001 for National Geographic about these marvelous creatures.

Whale sharks are kin to some of the most ferocious predators in the sea, but while great white sharks and their ilk can be extremely dangerous, whale sharks are the gentlest of creatures.   To be sure, they are giants. The largest can exceed forty feet in length and 50,000 pounds in weight. Thought to live up to 70 years, they are filter feeders, living off of plankton, and other small organisms, and can be found in all the world's tropical oceans.

 

 

 

I read a piece on the net today that reported on a whale shark tourist industry that has developed on Cebu in the Philippines.  It turns out that Michael Tobias's documentary, which was directed by filmmaker Erin Calmes,  was a catalyst that led to many nations declaring the whale shark a protected species.  Further, whale shark tourism is thriving now in the Sea of Cortez as well as in the Philippines.   Instead of hunting these gentile giants,  fisherman in Cebu are making money taking tourists to swim with them. 

I just told my wife, swimming with whale sharks is on my 'to do' list.

Here is a link to a wonderful video that features people swimming with giant whale sharks...http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_898895&feature=iv&src_vid=dUMUSFLyZpU&v=o6lpDsBYX6A

Here is a link to a group that is working to protect whale sharks...http://www.whalesharkfest.com/pdf/ecoocean-brochure.pdf