Whale Sharking

The first Whale Shark encounter is quite astonishing. A huge giant gliding beneath us, just a gentle rhythmic sweep of the tail to power it forward, its far more deliberate than a reef shark which tends to dart, sprint and switch direction like a dog chasing a squirrel. The Whaleshark is more deliberate, patient and if it doesn’t like the company it just drops back into the deep.

So Day 1, on the dhoni and a whale shark, the trip is looking promising. We’re here with the Maldives Whale Shark Research Programme based on Digurrah, a populated island within the South Ari Atoll, we have a reef that runs past across the front of the island and on past some resort islands. We’ll be patrolling these waters for the next two weeks, sighting sharks and attempting to identify them. The Programme has been running for a number of years and has supported by a team of volunteers for most that time.

We’d been to the Maldives before in 2012 though in a different part of the country under the water it looked very similar to where we are this time, colourful corals, the cast of Finding Nemo, sharks and rays but we’d not seen the biggest fish of all and I’ve always wanted to see it, look it in the eye, see if it cared, see if there was any connection.

Day 2 wasn’t so good, no whalesharks at all, I’m sure they were there but in overcast days or flat light its very difficult to see them. In fact its difficult on a very clear day; they need to be near the surface so the subtle difference in colour against the reef beneath gives you an opportunity, if you happen to be looking at the right place at the right time. 

The sea isn’t clear at this time of year either, its full of the plankton that gives the videos and photos a red tinge.

The boat is a traditional dhoni, used to for fishing and ferrying by the locals its flat bottom allows it cross over the reefs but also makes it quite unstable, the constant rocking takes a while to tune into and at the end of the second day I’m getting used to countering the swaying boat but continue to do this when we get back to port, it makes the walk back to the guest house something of a Monty Python sketch.

The next two days are busy, with several sharks being seen, each triggers a round of stamping from the spotters on the roof of the boat, the engine flicking into neutral, the scramble to grab fins, mask, snorkel and cameras and get into the water. Swim hard to catch the shark or try to position yourself that it’ll come right past you. Its impossible to spot the shark when you are in the water and still some distance from it, you’re relying on the spotters who remain on the boat to point you in the right direction.

We’re also racing to get to the shark before any other boats, the neighbouring resort islands all offer Whale Shark encounters and many are waiting for us to spot the shark. The problem is that they are clumsy in approaching the shark, get too close, block its path and essentially deny themselves a decent encounter and us the chance to take our ID shots and data readings. However many of they customers are poor in the water and its with some satisfaction that you punch your way through the red life vested flotsam to keep up with the shark.

Our best encounter was some way off the reef, suspended above darkening shades of blue, one of the larger sharks swam with us for almost 30 minutes, I have a lot of video from it and because we had more time with the shark I could see it had a little fish hitching ride in its ear, I can see also the nicks a scratches that this male shark has picked up in its time here.

Most of the sharks wear some boat damage, mostly on the fins but one has the scars of a boat propeller the full length of its 4m body, I can’t believe it survived. All seem to have healed though some are less trusting of the surface visitors and dive almost as soon as you hit the water.

We have two days break, we’re all used to the boat rocking, off the sea sickness tablets and becoming slicker at the data capture and entry (the primitive IT equipment annoys me so I leave it to others). Each evening the details of each shark are uploaded to the main spotters database. An area of the shark between gill and fin is photographed at each encounter and this triangle of area is used to identify the shark, the spots and markings are unique to each shark. some Nasa provided software cross references the Sharks’s spot pattern to confirm if this is a new shark to the area or a returning visitor: Most have been seen here before, but we can update the length and note any new injuries that were seen.

All the Whale sharks in the Maldives are juveniles, actually male juveniles measuring upto about 8m. Where the females are, and why we only see juveniles is a mystery. Where the sharks go when they grow older is also a mystery, where they are born is a mystery. It is hoped that someone will spot one of the Maldivian sharks in years to come, in another part of the world and that will start to answer some of these questions.

Other than actual shark data other stats were captured concerning how busy the reef was, with other boat traffic and bigger animals - turtles are common, as were the dolphins but they aren’t interested in swimming with you and vanish quickly - we also capture measurements of the sea conditions and weather. I guess this could be referenced against the frequency of shark sightings in different areas but I didn’t see it used to inform any part of our daily boat journeys. I understand that the boat traffic stats are used by the Maldivian government to determine the $ value of the sharks to the tourist trade and therefore strengthen the case for protecting them.

The second half of Day 6 we explored the other side of the island from our usual patch, inside the Atoll and a surprisingly different place to the reef. The bottom is sandy and the outcrops of rock and coral is not so numerous. Its not usually a place for whale sharks, instead I came across a Moray.

The guest house is starting to lack variety, the same breakfast, the dinners are the same as last week and the provided lunch is always a tupperware full of rice, thats it, just rice. And an apple.

The weather is deteriorating and its more frequently raining, its not cold, the sea is still the constant 30degrees but the sharks keep coming. The largest shark we saw was Adam at over 7m and he returned again on Day 7, this time I happened to be in front of him as he came out the gloom and swam under me, you can see the gash on his top lip and nick in his tail from another propellor. For ID shots you need to be at eye level with the shark, preferably on the left hand side. At the end of the swim I was surrounded by little bullets speeding past me; I caught a still of some baby squid, I’d not seen them before.

The last day and we’re still looking for Sharks but actually started the day on the other side of the reef, it was hoped we’d find Manta. In fact we saw three. I followed a pair away from the boat, the manta turned back at me a few times, I was so close to it, it was a moment when it was looking at me as much as I was studying it. in the end I was feeling that he was fed up of me following and I let him go, then I realised how far I was from the boat. It was a long swim back. The Whale shark that day was measured by me and Alex (MWSRP staff) with a tape measure.

We’ve had a glimpse into a small part of the life of a (male) whale shark but its a shame we couldn’t be closer to the analysis and research, using the data that had been collected to learn something new about the sharks. Its a shame that the Maldivian’s won’t allow the sharks to be satellite tagged, apparently sharks with tags aren’t as interesting to tourists chasing the once in a lifetime chance encounter but filling in the unknowns of its lifecycle is more interesting to the rest of us.