Times of the Islands Summer 2015

astrolabe newsletter of the Turks & Caicos National Museum
astrolabe newsletter of the Turks & Caicos National Museum
The author takes advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime “photo op.”
No, that’s not a leg sticking out of the whale shark’s mouth. It’s Jack pinned between the boat and her lower lip! I was the first one in and when I came up under the He was trying to get a shot of JF and I with her, but
By Dr. Randel Davis ~ Photos By Jean-Francois Chabot
Tuesday, July 22, 2008: It was a day that started like any other. After a hard morning on Providenciales’
boat I encountered the largest animal I’ve ever seen, But
it wasn’t a whale, it was a whale shark—the largest fish
in the sea! It was massive, more like a submarine than a
fish. Its head was six feet across. It must’ve been over
thirty-five feet long with an eight foot tailfin and loads
of remoras attached to its belly and tail, and it was coming
directly at me! I back-peddled, but it kept swimming
toward me as if to get a closer look. I knew that despite
their size, whale sharks are not considered dangerous to
humans, but I did not expect it to be so . . . pushy. Was it
just curious or what?
By this time Jack and JF were in the water. I saw that JF
had the presence of mind to bring his HD video camera.
she was making it difficult by staying too close to the
camera. He got nice footage of the inside of her throat,
thinking the whole time “she’s going to swallow the
camera.” He had to swim hard in reverse so as not to be
sucked in with the water and the camera. Putting his hand
on her lip (if whale sharks have lips) was the only way he
could stay away from her five-foot wide mouth lined with
ten or fifteen rows of small 3/16-inch teeth on both the
upper and lower jaws. If she opened it all the way you
could actually swim in and be Jonah for a day.
It was strange that she just kept swimming in a small
area around us. Also, she never went deeper than about
thirty feet, spending most of the time near the surface. At
At one point he passed it over to Jack to shoot this amazing
animal. When he did so, she (yes, the whale shark sick and seeking help, or was she OK? We were amazed at
this point we were all questioning her behavior: was she
Northwest Reef looking for cannons from the US Navy Brig Chippewa (which we found!), Capt. Jean-
François Chabot (“JF”) was taking Jack Crowe and me back to the liveaboard dive boat TC Explorer II, a few
was a she) seemed to become even more curious. Now, her apparent curiosity about us and fascination with the
miles away. About halfway back in two hundred feet of water a dark shape appeared directly below us.
instead of continuing to swim ahead so that we would video camera. When Jack passed it back to JF her attention
turned to him. Definitely not camera shy!
Whatever it was, it dwarfed our puny 15-foot dingy. JF shouted “Whale! Everybody in!” Jack and I pulled
have to chase her to get more footage, she came straight
on our snorkeling gear and rolled over the side.
for Jack, mouth opening and closing right in front of him! As we swam around her, the remoras, which ranged
A Fishy Story
This whale shark encounter has to be seen to be believed!
56 www.timespub.tc
Times of the Islands Summer 2015 57