Unexpected Dive with a Whale Shark!

Hello My fellow Steemians!!

It has been a while since I have posted. Call it writer's block, or even just call it focusing on my real world job, which like most of us has started to frustrate me more and more. I decided it was time to go back to something I enjoy and write about experiences and thoughts that I would like to share with my fellow content creators and enthusiasts - In this case, specifically the divers.

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One of my favorite past time hobbies living here in the Philippines is diving. With all of the beaches, and surrounding bodies of water, it would be crazy not to take up this hobby. It can get expensive, but the experiences you can have and the sites you can see our unlike anything else. That in addition to the sense of calm and peacefulness you can experience when on a dive.

I recently went on a diving trip in Bohol (while on a business trip) with several of my co-workers. I was told that there were a lot of sea turtles and other sea creatures that would be great for those of us who were interested in Macro photography. This was my first ever trip diving in this location.

Like most diving trips - we started early in the morning at around 6AM. We put on our wetsuits, shoes, gloves, and packed all our gear onto the diving boat. Our first dive was a location was a spot that we were told was great for Macro Photography. On occasion we would also see a number of turtles if we were lucky. Anyone who goes diving is always excited to see turtles swimming under water. It is one of the many rare things to see when one goes diving and to be in a location where we would have the opportunity to see a lot of them had me excited.

Our first dive - almost immediately upon entering the water and descending, the first thing i saw was a group of turtles. unlike the small land turtles, these were HUGE.

Below is a video showing how peaceful and tranquil it was. It just happened to include a video of one of the many sea turtles that we saw.

Anyways, as we continued our dive, which typically only lasts at most 30-45 minutes depending on your air consumption, I continued taking photographs of some of the many see creatures and exotic corals - most of which I have or will share in separate posts. As we came to the middle point of our dive where we were going to descend down a vertical drop off of a cliff, I began taking pictures of a friend in front of a massive school of tuna...

... when out of nowhere i heard one of our dive masters start screaming - an underwater mumble of noise that sounded like someone suffocating. When i looked over at him, he was freaking out and pointing in the other direction. This was concerning because i automatically assumed something dangerous was swimming towards us. I quickly turned around and what I had never imagined I would see was swimming towards us.

A Whale Shark - I wasn't able to capture any clear pictures of it, but I was able to get a good video of the entire experience - See below... I apologize for the music. It was a quick edit and upload.

The Philippines (specifically Cebu) is know for having many of these whale sharks and anyone can visit and swim with them. The thing that made this experience unique is that we were not expecting it and we got to experience it in a setting that was not over-commercialized. On several occasions I have wanted to visit Oslo in Cebu, where excursions are setup every morning for tourists to go out and swim with Whale Sharks. The problem with this is that it is disruptive to the natural behaviors of the whale sharks, so much so that the Whale Sharks are now drawn to the area because local fishermen hand feed them small shrimps, drawing hordes of tourists to see the "gentle giants of the sea."

In Cebu, you can see as many as 20 Whale Sharks at a time, however the experience that you have is not the same as when you see them in the wild, in their natural environment. "Biologists fear that the situation could lead the whale sharks to develop abnormal social behaviors, such as increased aggression or competition between the animals. The close contact could also lead to the spread of disease and parasites." [Source]

Whale Sharks are known as the the world's largest fish. They pose no danger to humans and are one of the most amazing creatures I have seen to date while diving. This is an experience I wanted to share with you all and hope that you have enjoyed reading and watching the videos included in this post.

Please comment below and let me know of any experiences you have had or any places you recommend diving at.