W is for Whale Shark

I think it’s every diver’s dream to dive with a whale shark.  It’s most certainly mine. As the largest extant fish species, its average length is 46 feet. 46 feet! It can weight up to 15 tons.  It is rather docile, and it is quite common, once finding one, to swim along with it. Talk about realizing just how small you are while swimming about with an almost 50 foot giant in the ocean.

In Honduras, where I learned to dive, whale sharks are quite commonly spotted during the spring months.  And while I dived a lot during that time, I was never lucky enough to find one.  So, I’ll keep diving and perhaps on that live aboard, or perhaps somewhere else on my adventures around the world, one day I’ll swim with this gentle giant in the sea.