Swimming with whale sharks in Donsol, Philippines, 1-25-10

The flight to Legaspi had some gorgeous views. We passed over small white sand islands surrounded by blue water with colors ranging from pastel to turquoise to navy. And when we landed, we had a first class view of the Mayon Volcano. The sky was blue, mountains and volcano green, and the sun was shining upon us. We were excited.

We met two Canadian backpackers at baggage claim named Jess and Alan. They had been teaching English in Korea for the past year and were on a 2 month vacation in the Philippines. We were all headed to the same place and would need to take a tricycle from the airport to the bus terminal and then catch a bus or van to Donsol.

The tricycle costs us 50 pisos (just under 1 dollar) and the 1.5 hour packed van ride to Donsol was about $3. The whole ride, Cam and I were in the third (last) row and I had to lean away from the window and onto him so my hair wouldn’t get caught in sharp poking thing behind me.  Cam and I spent the next hour and a half acting like spastic thai-chi karate warriors, catching and killing mosquitoes flying around the van. After the 7^th one, we got them all.

From the city center of Donsol we caught a tricycle to the visitor’s center, located on the beach, where we would have to register first before diving with whale sharks. We found cheap accommodation on the beach at place called JoLee for 700 pisos a night (so $7.60 a person).

After we registered we met a backpacking couple from Germany named Sue and Daniel. We heard the whale shark tour boats depart as soon as the first group of six is formed. Boats take off at 7:30am and Sue and Daniel were committed to meet us early in the morning to get on that first boat. Cam and I ran into Jess and Alan as we were walking back to our hotel and told them about the great deal we got on our rooms and how we had two more in our whale shark group. “Perfect!” they said. And after they registered they came to JoLee and moved in next door to us.

That evening I saw one of the best sunsets of my vacation. Cam and I went for a walk along the black sand beach and ran into Sue and Daniel. We watched the golden-red sun set below the water with mountains around to make this act of nature even more spectacular. As if out of a movie, a Philippino fisherman on a long, narrow wooden boat started paddling by in the water in front of the sunset. He only had a long pole to jab into the water and push him forward. It was one of the greatest images I’ve seen and we all kept running up the beach to follow him and continuously take pictures of him with the burning orange sun in the background.

At 7:15am our athletic backpacking group of six met at the visitor’s center to sign up for a boat. We ate breakfast from this Philippino lady’s home-cooking stand she had set up on the beach. For about $2 US we had 4 plates of food and rice... plenty for Cam and me. We had a couple tuna dishes, one with coconut and one that was spicy, a shark dish, some vegetables, and rice.

Our group of six watched an informative video about whale sharks, conservation efforts, and procedures and then we applied our sunscreen and waded through water to board our little wooden boat.

We were told that the groups that went out yesterday saw a couple whale sharks, but one boat didn’t see any. I have been thinking about this experience for almost 8 months now and was wishing for good luck. All I wanted was to find whale sharks and swim with them.

Since whale sharks are sharks, not whales, they breathe underwater and do not need to breach to the surface for air. Therefore, in order to find them, our whale shark scouts on the boat stood / balanced on a tall wooden railing (like a stick) above us and search for large dark shadows in the water.

An hour and a half later, we were out of luck. A couple people in our group started to loose hope, Cameron suggested we could try again later in the day, but I was set on seeing them today and kept a positive attitude (ever seen the movie “The Secret”?). “We’ll find them” I said, “they’re coming our way”.

Not even 10 minutes later we heard shouts of delight, “WHALE SHARK, THERE, THERE, THERE! TURN THE BOAT!” Our guide called out to us to put on our masks and fins. “We will all sit on the edge of this boat ready to go and speed up to the shark, when I say ‘NOW’, you jump in very quick with me and swim as fast as you can to the whale shark. Stay by me and you will see it”, he said.

My heart was pounding out of my chest as our boat flew towards a grey shadow, I couldn’t wait to get in the water with them! “NOW, NOW, NOW”, and we all tumbled into the water as the boom of the boat zoomed over our heads. The water was cold and we started swimming frantically as fast as we could towards a shadow. Ten seconds later, it was over. No one saw anything. “The shark dive down” said our guide. “Back to the boat”.

We took off our fins and masks to climb up the boat’s ladder and we sat down as the boat sped off and the seekers climbed to their lookout spots. “ANOTHER ONE! GET READY! PUT ON YOUR MASK AND FINS”. At mach speeds we were throwing on our fins and slapping on our masks. “NOW NOW NOW!!” Into the water we fell and as soon as I was in the water I saw a MASSIVE dark gray house move under me. I had my waterproof camera in hand and was frozen in place; I don’t know if it was fear or excitement. The guide grabbed my arm and pulled me forwards towards the direction the whale shark was swimming. “OH YEAH!” I thought, I’m supposed to swim with it!”

The sixty foot whale shark was directly under me and only a few inches away from my camera. All of my pictures from that encounter are close-ups of spots on the whale shark’s head and back.

When the shark had enough and finally dove down; we at the surface were yelling to each other across the water. “Did you see him?” “WOW!” “Incredible” “I saw his mouth” I saw fish swimming on his arm”, “I saw his head”, “I saw his tail!”. We were all so excited. I showed everyone my pictures (of spots), I was the only one with an underwater camera, and they all were very happy to have the pictures. Hearts beating out of our chests, we took off our fins and masks and climbed back on board.

The boat sped off and three minutes later one of our spotters found another shark! “Masks and fins! Get Ready!” (again?). “NOW, NOW, NOW”, and we jumped off the side of the boat as the wooden boom passed over us and horizontally raced towards the gray shadow that was about to swim under us at a 90 degree angle.

I set my camera on video and found myself directly over the shark’s head. With camera in hand I took a deep breath and dove underwater to film. The film starts at the top of the shark’s head, I swam and scanned over to the right side of its body to get its right lateral fin (with fish swimming on it), then to the top of its back (with ridges on it), and finally I sat semi-still underwater to film the whale shark pass under me. I was able to see his dorsal fin, beginning of its tail, second smaller dorsal fin, and then his massive tail cruise along and almost hit my camera. It was an incredible experience to have captured and I swam up to the surface with the hugest smile on my face. “I got it!”   (click on the link below)

VIDEO OF THE WHALE SHARK

It was hard for me to remember to breathe while swimming with these whale sharks. The whole time I was just so excited to be in the water with them. And while following them, all I’m thinking underwater is that I want to keep up!

We got back on the boat after I captured the video and our whole group just had the best experience. We all agreed that even if we didn’t see any more whale sharks, we would be happy. But, oh did we see more! Seven more times we spotted whale sharks and jumped in the water with them. Each time it was the same, we’d hurry to pull on our mask and fins, throw ourselves into the water while falling over eachother, race to the whale shark, hold our breath over the next 3 minutes, then get back on the boat for 5 minutes or less before we would repeat that cycle. It was incredible (and exhausting)!

One time, I dove down deep to stay with a shark and continue taking pictures. When I realized I needed to breath and come up for air, I discovered that I was deeper than 20 feet underwater and had to clear my ears to come up. The surface was so far away and I kept kicking up to the surface with no sky in sight! Of course I made it, but I was so focused on following the shark and taking pictures of it that I didn’t realize he was taking me so deep underwater.

After diving 10 times with these whale sharks, we were really exhausted! Our guide said to us… “well, it’s almost time to go in, do you want to dive with them one more time or head back to shore?” We all looked around at each other thinking the same thing… our tired and drained bodies telling us to say no, but our excited and ‘once in a lifetime mentality’ telling us to say ‘yes!’. Of course we went in one last time. And I loved it just as much as the first dive.

You know, I’ve been skydiving before, cliff diving, jumped off waterfalls, swung from rope swings, gone off zip-lines … but this experience tops them all. It’s hard to explain in words how electrifying the encounter was and how much adrenaline was flowing through my body… but it was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before and I’m going to do it again 5 and 10 years from now. I already promised our guide he’d see me soon.