Day 1 Sunday 24 May 2009

G’day from sunny warm Exmouth.

Today was an early start that no one minded. We were all so excited about the first day of diving with these sharks. 6 to 7 metres may sound reasonable in size for a fish but it is absolutely huge when it swims near you and you are trying to get a photo and fit all of the critter into the same frame.

The weather was good today as the wind had died away with a big but lazy swell running. But it was about 26 in the water and the same in the air. Lovely weather to do a snorkel in.

Before we went after whale sarks we had to do a snorkel on a piece of reef to make sure we could all snorkel. There were about 20 people on board. It was a nice dive with a great variety of fish both species and numbers. Form there it was off after the sharks.

We had to steam a long way from Tantabidi boat ramp to past Mandu Mandu before the spotter plan found a shark. The first group were of and swimming to it but when our turn came it decided to dive. Some saw it but I missed. Not happy but hey more to follow I hoped. The next came soon after and it cruised by so I saw it all and tried to photograph it.

Back on the boat after one successful shark snorkel and a few minutes later the radio from the spotter plane said there was another one on its way. This time we were first in and fun followed as it cruised past very close. I was too close as you are supposed to keep at least 3m from its head and 4m from the tail. The same followed a number of times. As soon as we settled back on the boat a new shark was sighted and it was one of all again. We swam after 4 or 5 sharks (I lost count) with two having repeat swims and one back tracked and came right back at us. Real WOW factor stuff!

These fish come out of the blue as a brownish blur and slowly form into this large blunt nosed fish with a large number of smaller fish in attendance around the mouth and remoras around the body. The number of these fish in attendance vary so much, from heaps and heaps to quite a few. There is usually lots of small fish around the mouth and the remora hang out below it. After about 4 hours swimming and jumping into the water it was time to come back home.

Tomorrow I am back on the water as it is my groups turn to start the work-days off on the water and then in the lab to identify the animals we have recorded.