Whale Sharks

Arturo de Frias · Issue 73, Jul/Aug 2013 · pp. 54–57

Products mentioned: Nikon D7000, Sigma 50mm, Tokina 10-17mm, Ikelite housing

the following lines. Whale Shark encounters are never guaranteed but there is one ingredient that makes success much more likely - deep local knowledge. And the captain of the MV Sea Queen, an old hand of Maldivian waters, has lots of that. And he had been told by the fishermen that in a certain area in Thaa Atoll whale sharks were being regularly spotted. So one evening, just after sunset, our captain connected two large floodlights, almost 1,000 volts combined, directly illuminating the water column, and left them there. Hopefully, the light would attract the plankton, and the plankton would attract a whale shark. Almost immediately, the plankton starts to build up, and in 10 minutes the water turned milkish, full of plankton and small fish. We went for dinner, but not for long… Before 7pm, we heard an excited shout coming from the stern… a fairly large 7-8 meter long whale shark had a…