Whale shark

One of the best things about being back in La Paz is having another opportunity to swim with a whale shark. Thanks to Bill on s/v Iron Maiden, the outboard is running again, so we took the dinghy out beyond the Mogote this morning. Within 15 minutes, we had spotted a whale shark, this time without a panga nearby.

But as soon as Vicki got into the water, a panga spotted us and came over to put his passengers in the water too. The first whale shark swam away from both boats, but we soon located a second one that was not in a hurry.

After Vicki had her fill, she came back to the dinghy and I jumped in with our underwater camera (Olympus Stylus 1030SW). This whale shark was only about 20 feet long (they grow up to 20 meters in length!), but due to limited underwater visibility, I could only get good photos from up close, about a meter from the whale shark. Here are a few, showing the whale shark's mouth, gills, pectoral fin, and left side. Unfortunately I couldn't get a decent shot of its tail - you are supposed to stay at least two meters away from the tail, for obvious reasons.