Back to Roca Partida (Socorro) and we started of well with many silver tips and big Galapagos sharks a bit deeper at ca 80-120 ft. Some hammerheads , but not the massive schools of them. The fish life was crazy so much of creol fish and scissortails that they covered the viz to get any decent photo of the sharks.
Our third dive we saw this massive shadow first thinking it is a scool of fish, but it is a giant whale shark , female and she seemed to be pregnant. Just the width of the head I counted 3m and the total lenght 12-15m a seriouse animal, one of the biggest I have seen if not the biggest!
We had luck to follow it and it made 3 turns to the rock and most of the divers saw it. At a time we where watching the whales shark getting surrounded by galapagos and silver tips, also swarmed by the black jacks. We high fived and shouted under water. This is magic seeing a such a caliber of a fish, the caudal fins top had a serious amputeded part , wondered of a big Tiger or a White, or runned over by a boat? She looked healthy though.
I wonder how old an animal like that could be.
Dive guide Sten
Surface condition: day shpp and easy surgeb cloudy morning and a sunnyy afternoon.
Underwater conditions: 26 C viz general 100-120 ft, some current but not bad.
AWESOME dive day! First 2 days on my second trip to Socorro Island and already I’m blown away! This is what I had hoped for on my first trip out and this time it’s being delivered! Yesterday, we had amazing encounters with giant manta rays and today…..WHALE SHARK!!!! Fantastic! She looked pregnant and she was about 12-14 m in length! We saw her in the shallows (around 40 feet) and swam with her as she slowly descended to deeper depths.
Along with the mantas and whale shark and mantas, there have been heaps of hammerheads, silvertips, galapagos, and of course, white tip sharks.
So far, this trip has been amazing and we’re looking forward to seeing mating whalesharks tomorrow!
Lori Vancouver, Canada
Monster whale shark at Roca Partida. Dive guide and crew log. Nov. 19/10.
