The Wandering Waterman

Alright, so it’s been awhile since I’ve posted here. Wish I could say it’s because I’ve been traveling the world, filming amazing footage, hobnobbing with the Cousteaus…. but I’ve just been lazy… yep, a lazy diver, imagine that?

Anyways, I’m about to leave to Utila in less than a week’s time, and I’m ready to gogogogogogogo now! Everything has been checked, double checked, triple checked and sitting in the corner waiting to go… or to be checked again!My wife Maria says I’m like a kid at Christmas…. of course I am, I’m going diving with Whale Sharks! Who wouldn’t want that day to roll in already? I know, I know, I was this excited back in October when I went down to La Paz for Whale Sharks and came back with footage of everything BUT Whale Sharks. I’m not one to be disappointed though, and I think they’re all just kicking back down in Honduras!

I’m staying at the Utopia Dive Village, an Eco-friendly resort run by a few Americans. It’s isolated, supposed to have an amazing house reef, and just be a great place to dive out of. I’ll be posting daily here while I’m there… they have WiFi, and I’ll let you know what the overall experience is like.

Here’s some info on Whale Sharks, courtesy of National Geographic:

As the largest fish in the sea, reaching lengths of 40 feet (12 meters) or more, whale sharks have an enormous menu from which to choose. Fortunately for most sea-dwellers—and us!—their favorite meal is plankton. They scoop these tiny plants and animals up, along with any small fish that happen to be around, with their colossal gaping mouths while swimming close to the water’s surface.

The whale shark, like the world’s second largest fish, the basking shark, is a filter feeder. In order to feed, it juts out its formidably sized jaws and sucks in everything in the vicinity. It then shuts its mouth, forcing water to filter out of its gills. Everything that remains becomes the giant shark’s dinner.

The whale shark’s flattened head sports a blunt snout above its mouth with short barbels protruding from its nostrils. Its back and sides are gray to brown with white spots among pale vertical and horizontal stripes, and its belly is white. Its two dorsal fins are set rearward on its body, which ends in a large dual-lobbed caudal fin (or tail).

Preferring warm waters, whale sharks populate all tropical seas. They are known to migrate every spring to the continental shelf of the central west coast of Australia. The coral spawning of the area’s Ningaloo Reef provides the whale shark with an abundant supply of plankton.

Although massive, whale sharks are docile fish and sometimes allow swimmers to hitch a ride. They are currently listed as a vulnerable species; however, they continue to be hunted in parts of Asia, such as Taiwan and the Philippines.

Alright, keep coming back, especially after the 13th, that’s when I land in Honduras!