Free diving with a whale shark
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, North America, Photo of the week — By Kelly on July 29, 2010 6:05 PMAmazing photo of my fearless friend Dan free diving with a 40′ whale shark at Gordo Banks – Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. SO COOL!!!
Photo by Enrique Martinez
Note to readers: While whale sharks are harmless creatures (they are known as “gentle giants” of the sea), you should be careful to never swim too close to the tail as it is large and powerful. And always remember to be respectful to their home and personal space while exploring the underwater world.
Tags: Cabo San Lucas, scuba diving
4 Comments
Fearless? Cool? Whale Sharks are gentle creatures and are harmless. It’s completely disrespectful for your friend to ‘catch a ride’ on that animal. If anything had fear it was the poor shark being harassed by this ignorant person.
I agree with you, it would be highly disrespectful for someone to try to ride on the back of a whale shark. That would be wrong. They are harmless creatures and surely would be quite frightened if someone were to do this. While whale sharks are not aggressive creatures, it is dangerous to swim too close to the tail as it is very large and powerful and could really hurt someone if hit with. I do need to say that my friend did nothing wrong; however I am in the wrong for originally title this post “want to go for a ride?” doing so sent the wrong message and I have changed that title. Thank you for bringing to my attention. My friend actually was never trying to literally “catch a ride” on the back of this animal, he is free diving, perhaps too closely, but would never try to ride on this animal. He is is a dive master, has great respect for underwater creatures and has even literally saved a whale that had been trapped inside a fishing line! Sorry to offend you, I respect and agree with your opinion on this matter. Thanks for reading and caring for the underwater world 🙂
To actually think a creature weighing 10-20 tonn actually felt my 60kg presence, to think in human terms of “catching a ride” that would be far more ignorant. Think otherwise, look up “remoras” on the net.
Further more the creature made no notice of my two fingers on its dorsal fin.
Get it Dan 🙂 this fella prob loved the company!!!