Jaques

Jaques came into my office on Gili Trawangan to book a dive. I checked his credentials, sized him up, took his money and signed him up for a dive at Manta Point the next morning. He hadn’t dived for almost a year, but refused the offer of a little refresher. Fair enough. He seemed to be very confident and let’s not forget that a refresher plus a dive is the same price as two dives. You can’t force someone to do a refresher after all.

I only had three divers that morning, two of which had dived with us before. I gave an extra thorough briefing, then we jumped on the boat. On the dive site I did a current check, then hopped back on the boat to do a buddy check with Jaques, who was to be my buddy for the dive.

We jumped in and started to descend. Jaques had some ear problems, so we descended fairly slowly, but everytime I asked him if everything was alright, he gave me the ok signal back. We soon arrived at our initial depth of 14 meters. From now on we would follow the ground straight to the sharks at 21 meters. I turned round to Jaques and noticed quite a bit of fluid in his mask, so I told him to clear it. When the fluid came out it was a murky greenish brown. His mask slowly started to fill up again.

I asked again if he was ok. He pointed to his ears and said there was a problem, so we ascended a bit. His mask kept filling up further. Suddenly Jaques started to shoot up pointing wildly to his ears. I hang on to him and slowed his ascend, then made him look at me. I now suspected that Jaques had a nose bleed coupled with ear problems. That had made him panic. I motioned the other divers to come up with us and managed to get Jaques back on the boat in one piece. I put him straight on O2, just in case. It turned out that he hardly ever equalized all the way to 14 meters, even though I had told everybody to do so early and often many times during my briefing.

The Dutch Group

Four Dutch lads, Frank, Thomas, Richard and Bas, came into the shop to go diving. Richard and Bas already were Advanced Open Water Divers, while Frank and Thomas wanted to do that course. But all four of them wanted to dive together. The next day we went to Shark Point to do the deep dive portion of the course. It was a clear and brilliant day and you could see fish swimming around on the bottom at 30 meters. We geared up, did our checks and jumped in, all of us excited.

We quickly descended to 30 meters. I then did a few maths calculations with Frank and Thomas to find out what effects nitrogen narcosis has on each diver. Then we started to ascend a bit. I looked up. I had just noticed a gentle current that hadn’t been there before. 30 meters before us there was a wall of sand coming fast towards us and we were in a current that carried us towards the wall. The current got stronger and changed into a down current. I now switched direction and started to fin upwards along the bottom, hoping to get out of the current. By now the wall of sand was almost on us. I gathered the lads around me and made everybody hold on to me, just as the two currents hit each other and the sand engulfed us. Visibility was down to less than half a meter.

I told everybody that we would slowly go up to the surface. Richard and Frank didn’t react. Their eyes were wide open, I could barely see their eyeballs. Frank wasn’t breathing, so I punched him in the stomach. Richard had by now started to inflate his jacket and started to fin up to the surface like crazy, so I punched him as well. It had the desired effect. Everybody was breathing and moderatly calm. But we were still at 25 meters in a down current and I had no idea where the current would take us.

I checked everybodys air and ‚although we had only been under for 15 minutes, we were running low. I started dragging everybody up and slowly we came up to 15 meters, while everybody was still holding onto me. Then I started to divide up the air. I still had plenty, so I put Frank on my second regulator and Richard on my primary. I was breathing from their depleted tanks. Then I pulled out an inflatable buoy and shot it up to the surface, hoping that the boat would see it.

By this time Thomas was really low on air, so I gave him Bas’ second reg, who still had around 70 bar. We ascended further and stopped at 6 meters for our safety stop. We didn’t quite make the required three minutes and reached the surface after 25 minutes total dive time. We had just enough air left in our tanks to inflate our jackets. Our boat was, strangely enough, directly next to us and our captains were smiling down on us and helped us into the boat. Everybody was relieved that we all got off lightly.

Later the captains told me that they could see the wall of sand from the surface. When the two currents hit we didn’t actually move much. We drifted around the boat in a big circle…

Leave a comment if you liked this post and tune in for the last post in this series. It’s about a whale shark!

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Cesar and Brutus

Teaching kids how to dive was one of the most rewarding experience during my life as a dive instructor. Usually they’re not afraid of anything, but have enough respect of these new surroundings to do as they’re told. Brutus was different. A little 12 year old chubby boy from Switzerland who had to learn to dive because his dad, Ceasar, didn’t want to do the course alone.

Brutus couldn’t be bothered with sitting in a classroom. Every day was sunny and he could hear the other kids fooling around in the swimming pool. Duh, school was out, in case I had missed it!! So I moved our classroom sessions into the cafe on the beach next to our classroom. But it was still class and Brutus refused to even acknowlege me. So I bribed him with ice cream, but his attention never lasted longer than the one scoop he had in front of him.

Ceasar on the other hand was an examplary student. His homework was always done and always correct. He assured me that he would learn with Ceasar in the evenings and it seemed to pay off. Brutus managed to pass all quizzes and just about passed the final exam. During the swimming pool lessons, Brutus was more attentive, but it was still hard keeping him concentrated. We just about managed.

After two days in the classroom and pool we finally went diving for real. To Sail Rock, in the Gulf of Thailand, just northeast of Koh Pha Ngan. Not the best dive site for your first two dives, but as a normal dive instructor you don’t usually get a say in that matter. Sail Rock is a 30m deep pinnacle that can be brilliant on a nice day and really nasty and choppy on a bad day. We were unlucky and had a bad, dark and rainy day. You could hear the waves crashing into the rock and it sounded anything but friendly.

I carried a buoy with me to allow my students to descend in relative peace. There was a long rope attached, so it would also prevent them from being swept away on the surface if they held onto it. I jumped into the water first, then waited for other instructors to help Ceasar and Brutus into the water. Ceasar jumped first. I made sure he was alright, then told him to hold onto the rope. Brutus was about to jump in, when he ripped his mask off and stared wide-eyed at his father. I turned around. Cesar was trying to climb on top of the buoy, but never quite managed. He was hyperventilating and had the worst panic attack I had seen to date. He had spit out his regulator and got water into his mouth with every new wave.

By the time I got to him he had finally gotten a good grip on the buoy, stuck his head as far out of the water as possible and wouldn’t let go. He kept whispering that he didn’t want to drown, which would happen if he let go. I dragged him back to the ladder, assuring him, that he’ll be fine, but he was in a world of his own. I doubt he even saw me or the boat or anything for that matter. I tried to pry his fingers off the buoy, but Cesar was strong in his panic. In the end a boat boy jumped in to help me. Altogether five staff pulled and pushed Cesar back onto the boat. For him the diving day was over.

On the boat I turned round to Brutus to ask him what he wanted to do. And that chubby little boy was excited. He couldn’t wait to jump in. It looked like he found his fathers discomfort almost funny. We had two really pleasant dives that day. As soon as we got below 7 meters there was hardly any current and Brutus soon swam around like a fish. We even saw a shark that day. In the end Ceasar never finished his course, but Brutus was the proud owner of a Junior Open Water Diver certification…

If you enjoyed this post make sure not to miss part four where things go a little bit wrong!

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My First Three Courses

Finally, I was a dive instructor. It had cost me a lot of money and nerves. I had already been offered a job on Koh Samui, while still being busy studying for my Instructor Examination on Koh Tao in Thailand. I was full of ideals and I was gonna be the best instructor ever. I was well prepared. After all, I had only answered one question in the theory exams wrong and had gotten full marks in all my practical tests.

My First Course

The evening before my first day I dropped into the dive school to see what I was gonna do the next day. I was met there by Daniel, the manager. He told me my first course was gonna be a Medic First Aid Course. And if starting with an advanced course wasn’t enough, my student was a young Thai bloke who worked in one of the resorts affiliated with my new employer. But I was assured, that his English was sufficient

Medic First Aid is a one-day course that teaches CPR to the aspiring Rescue Diver. This is being accomplished through a series of gradually more difficult scenarios. Not too difficult to teach or to learn. If you have access to the Instructor Manual and if your student can understand what you’re trying to teach.

I arrived early at the dive shop to pick up the manual and read through it again. I was greeted by Daniel. He told me the manual was missing and that Little Annie, the puppet you perfom your excercises on had lost her head in an unfortunate accident and had to be repaired. But none of it was a problem. I should just watch the video with my student and practice on a stuffed bag.

The course started off well when I introduced myself and Wee, my student, didn’t understand a word I had just said. It didn’t get any better when we watched the video and I had to stop every 30 seconds to explain what we had just seen. But somehow we both managed. It probably was a good thing that I didn’t have a clue what I had to teach and Wee didn’t understand a thing I said.

My Second Course

Late that day, just before the dive shop closed I arrived back, comletely exhausted. With a cheery smile Daniel informed me that for the next three days I would be teaching Wee the Rescue Course. What a fuckup!!

I stayed up half the night to pour over the rescue manual. The next morning I skipped the video completely, figuering that Wee didn’t understand it anyway and started the classroom work. Of course he hadn’t done his homework, cause he couldn’t understand the questions. Instead he had practiced his artistic skills and drawn some pretty disturbing images where the answers belonged. It was hell!

Later in the day we went to the beach to do some practical exercises. Wee could barely swim and at the end of the day he had probably swallowed 5–6 liters of seawater and I was considering suicide. We had also lost a mask and a snorkel, both of which would be deducted from my salary. That evening I told Daniel that I couldn’t teach Wee anymore. He didn’t speak enough English. Daniel looked thoughtful and then told me that their Thai dive instructor would have to teach that course then after all, even though she ‘really didn’t feel like it’.

My Third Course

My next course was once again Medic First Aid. Language wouldn’t be a problem this time. Ralf was German and a really nice guy. And Daniel would do his best to borrow a copy of the instructor manual from another shop.

The manual stayed missing and we couldn’t borrow another one, of course. But Ralf was a really nice guy. He was also a professional fire fighter and only had to do the course because he forgot his CPR certificate back home and couldn’t get hold of it. After I showed him the first exercise he grinned at me and told me that I had forgotten to pinch the nose while giving rescue breaths and, anyway, our methods were really outdated. We really should be pinching the mouth and breath through the nose. He then showed me how to do CPR the proper way. I signed him off straight away. For the rest of the day we sat around the pool drinking beer, chatting about life. After that everything got easier…

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Erica, The Amazon

Erica was a German woman of around 50 years and she had booked a three-day open water course with me on Gili Trawangan. On the first day she already arrived about 1,5 hours late. The first thing she said to me, even before introducing herself, were if I knew this German professor, apparently an expert in diving theory, and one she was lucky enough to have had as a tutor at university some 30 years back. Our relationship was doomed when I said I had never heard of the guy.

Anytime I tried to teach her something she answered that Professor Know-It-All thought different. Of course, she never even once did her homework and couldn’t grasp simple concepts like air expanding when you ascend to shallower depths. It took the last bit of my willpower not to lose my patience. While I laboured away, all the other instructors and divemasters thought Erica and I were the best entertainment since colour TV.

Before our first pool session I took her to our equipment room to get her the right sized gear. I had a look at her, told her to get changed and then turned round to our gear. After picking up some equipment I turned back to her and there she was, standing around half naked, wearing only her knickers. I will never forget that sight. In fact I still have nightmares and wake up screaming, drenched in sweat.

Just at that moment, Epul, one of our local divemasters, came in and stopped dead in his tracks. His mouth opened and his gaze dropped down to Ericas knees, just where her boobs ended. His head went bright red with shame and embarrasment and he fled as fast as he could. Of course, Erica thought it was perfectly acceptable to go topless in a muslim country, but eventually she agreed to use the toilet to change and even managed to put a bikini top on.

To my great dissapointment Erica was actually very good in the water and mastered the skills quickly. But I got my revenge. Erica had put the final exam off for as long as she could, claiming she needed more time to study. After the last dive I sat her down with the multiple choice test, told her again that it was very easy and that it was in fact designed for 10-year old Americans. Erica failed miserably and only managed to answer 50% of the questions correctly. I couldn’t keep the grin off my face when I told her the result and that I could not certify her given the circumstances. Not very professional, but I had absolutely no patience left in me.

When Erica started screaming at me what an incompetent instructor I had been, in fact I was so incompetent that I didn’t even know Professor Know-It-All, I handed her off to our manager, who told her in no uncertain terms that she would have to stay a day longer, study the night and retake the exam the next morning. Lucky for me, I had a day off the next day and went out on the boat for a couple of relaxing fun dives and never saw Erica again. The worst thing of these three days with Erica was, though, that I had had to hand off another course full of blond scandinavian girls for her, just because I was the only german-speaking instructor at the dive school…

If you liked this post about Erica, then tune in again at the next post of the series ‘Anecdotes of a Dive Instructor’. This one will be about the first three courses I taught as a newly certified instructor!

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This pic was taken quite some time ago while on a pleasure dive somewhere deep around Simon’s Reef close to Gili Trawangan. It was after the tsunami and we hadn’t had any customers for some time, so we just took the boat out for fun.

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Everybody who has been travelling for a bit longer knows that eventually there comes a time when all that saved up money doesn’t amount to that much anymore. You’ve probably seen it coming and acted on it by having rice and sweet chili sauce three times a day, all washed down with a yummy glass of water. The times when you look at your bank account grow longer in the hopes that the problem will just disappear. Then you realize that the first step to solving your problem is to acknowledge it, so you decide to deal with it by listing all your possible options. One option is to just go home, although this is just a temporary solution. What exactly will you do when you get back home? Most likely find some work, save some money and then book another plane ticket. So why not try to get some work while travelling? Now, let’s look at some of the other options out there…

Work & Travel

There is a good chance that you’re from a country that has some kind of agreement with other countries allowing you to work there for up to one year. The most popular destination for that is undoubtedly Australia. There are many more countries out there though. For example New Zealand, Japan or Canada. The maximum age is usually 30 years, which is a bummer really (for me anyways!). It is a very good way of picking up any suitable work, doing it legally at the same time and finding a base for a certain amount of time to chill out. Let’s face it, travelling can be tiring and sometimes you just need a place where you can dump your backpack for a bit longer than just a few days.

Teaching English

This is a very popular method of bolstering ones wallet. In many countries, especially Asian ones, it’s often enough to just be a native speaker. An advantage is to have a proper certificate, like from TESOL or the various TEFL organizations. If you’re not a native speaker, but your english skills are very good, you could hold conversation classes. There may be even opportunities to do that in your native language.

Seasonal & Casual Work

Although it is better to be able to work legally, there are many jobs available where people look the other way. Many of them can be found in the agricultural sector, like fruit picking or harvesting. Generally, when the available legal work force isn’t sufficient, there will be people working without a work permit. Most of Australia, for example, is usually very strict, but if you head into outback towns like Mt. Isa you can pick up well paid bar work during summer. It’s always worth talking to other travellers. There’s usually lots of stories floating around where it’s possible to work without a work permit.

Diving

I have worked in Thailand and Indonesia as a Dive Instructor and apart from the odd setback, like a Tsunami or the bird flu, I have been able to make good money. You do need a certain amount of money to get started, though. First you need to pay for the different courses from Open Water Diver to Rescue Diver. This will set you back around 700 USD. All your equipment, which you must own yourself, will cost around 1500 to 2500 USD. The first professional course is the Dive Master (DM), which allows you to guide already certified divers underwater. Some shops let you work in exchange for the fees, which is around 650 USD. Once you are a DM you can then find work in the various diving hot spots around the world, maybe even saving up money towards your Instructor Development Course (IDC). This will chip away a big chunk from your budget, close to 2000 USD, including a couple specialty instructor ratings. While your DM salary will just about cover your costs, you will be able to earn a lot with your Instructor rating. It’ll be between 25–30% per course per person. It won’t take long to earn all those expenses back. Check out the PADI website.

Final Thoughts

The world can be a very exciting and sometimes nerve wrecking place, especially when you are about to run out of money. Always keep an open mind when it comes to finding work. You never know when the next opportunity arises to make some money. During my travels I have worked as a DM, a Dive Instructor and Boatmaster; I have worked on construction sites, in bars and I have driven a bulldozer and soon I will help build roads in New Zealand. If you have any special jobs or opportunities to add to my list, then feel free to leave a comment.

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Bandas underwater world is just unbelievably stunning. The coral is still intact and there are fish everywhere. Among other marine life you can see sharks and turtles, great barraccuda, dog tooth tuna, clown triggerfish, squid and napoleon wrasses while just snorkling. The walls, that start just a few meters off the beaches are so deep you can’t see the bottom, not even when you have 50 m visibility and freedive down to 25 m! Diving must be awesome there!! While I was there the one dive school on the islands was closed due to ramadan. No guides would go in the water, cause obviously you will get little amounts of water into your mouth and that counts as drinking! Just one more reason to go back to those charming islands…

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Following my 10 most favorite places in Southeast Asia I decided to post my favorite dive spots. I haven’t been to many of the world class dive sites in the area, like Richelieu Rock or Sipadan, so this list reflects merely my personal top 10.

1. Hin Daeng & Hin Muang, Koh Lanta, Thailand
   These are my absolute favorites. There’s the big stuff, like Mantas and Whale Sharks, and little critters, like the Harlequin Shrimp. Because of the depth and the sometimes quite strong current both those sites are not really suited for greenhorn divers.
2. Batu Bolong, Flores, Indonesia
   I had a fantastic dive here with three octopus. They were following and holding on to each other while weird patterns were pulsating down their bodies. Looked like an octopoda threesome to me. Just awesome!! The current was just unbelievable; in places so strong that our bubbles went straight down…
3. Shark Point, Gili Trawangan, Indonesia
   Probably the only dive site on earth, where you are surrounded by 15 turtles when doing your safety stop. Loads of different kinds of sharks and a gorgonian fan at around 20 m populated by pygmy seahorses. There can be some current, but here you always dive with the flow, so no worries…
4. Tulamben USS Liberty, Bali, Indonesia
   Loads of nudibranchs, scorpionfish, hundreds of garden eels waving in the slow current and extremely nosy parrotfish all within the remnants of a WWII freighter. Loads of little swimthroughs with fantastic light shining through holes in the hull.
5. Koh Haa Lagoon, Koh Lanta, Thailand
   This is an easy dive, but can nevertheless be breathtaking. Directly in the lagoon there are a few very curious and very cute porcupinefish, quite a few boxfish, and some garden eel. On the outer edge of the lagoon with it’s two pinnacles there’s barney, the hawksbill turtle and, if you look closely, a ghost pipefish hidden somewhere!
6. Sail Rock, Koh Tao, Thailand
   I did easily 50 dives here. If I would dive there now, I’d probably still know every fish by name. Great pinnacle dive with a chimney starting at 7m and going down to about 20m and a chance to see some big fish.
7. Tulamben Drop Off, Bali Indonesia
   I haven’t seen that much fish here to be honest, but the colors are just stunning. There are loads of huge gorgonian fans all over the site. Their colors made all the more brighter and vivid by the black vulcanic sand that’s everywhere.
8. Chumphon Pinnacles, Koh Tao, Thailand
   Chumphon, Koh Tao’s premier dive site, is a submerged rock formation covered in all different kinds of coral. There’s grey reef sharks around and the chance to see whale sharks. Loads of small critters as well. Can be quite crowded with divers, even for Koh Tao standards.
9. Simon’s Reef, Gili Meno, Indonesia
   This is a huge site starting at 14 m, going down to like 45 m, so it’s an advanced site. This is the place where I managed to capture three beautiful cuttlefish on film. Can be fantastic with visibility reaching 50–60 m. I once missed the whole dive site, due to current and bad visibility and promptly saw a huge stingray, easily 2,5 m long…
10. Temple of the Sea, Palau Perhentian Kecil, Malaysia
    Visibility wasn’t good, when I went diving here, but I could see the potential. There’s bamboo and nurse sharks and loads of barrakuda and jacks. The Temple is a pinnacle covered in soft and hard coral. When you’re in the area and you dive, then this spot shouldn’t be missed!

There are so many more dive spots I want to go to, most of all a liveaboard trip to the Burma Banks near Myanmar and to Alor in Eastern Indonesia. And I haven’t even been to the Philippines yet. If you’re not a diver yet, but would like to learn, then you should check out Koh Lanta, Koh Phi Phi or, for the more adventerous, Koh Lipe in Thailand, the Perhentians in Malaysia and the Gilis in Indonesia. There’s loads of dive sites for beginners there, loads of stuff to see and courses are not too expensive.
What’s your favorite dive sites?

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We tend to humanize animals. We give them traits. A dolphin is friendly, constantly smiling at us. A dog is our trusted companion, always loyal. A chimpanzee is almost human, if a little clumsy and not as intelligent, but all the more likeable because of it. And a shark… Well, a shark is just evil. A beast with huge sharp teeth. sharks rouse ancient fears in us and movies like ‘jaws’ or ‘the deep blue’ have just been aggravating the matter. So let’s have a look at the sharks, shall we?

Shark Facts

• Sharks belong to the superorder ‘Selachimorpha’, which is part of the subclass ‘Elasmobranchii’ which in turn belongs to the class ‘Chondrichthyes’.
• In total there are about 370 known shark species living in our oceans.
• They are to be found anywhere from the surface down to 3700m ( like the Portuguese Dogfish or Centroscymnus Coelolepis).
• Sharks range in size from around 20cm (like the Pygmy Ribbontail Catshark or Eridacnis Radcliffei) to probably more than 12m (the largest fish in the ocean, the Whale Shark or Rhincodon Typus).
• Sharks don’t have any table manners. They don’t chew their food, but just swallow it.
• All sharks are cartilaginous, which means that sharks have an internal skeleton made up entirely of cartilage. This is more flexible and lighter than bone. Also cartilaginous fish usually don’t have a swim bladder, so they sink to the bottom if they stop swimming.
• Sharks have 5–7 pairs of gills.
• The oldest found shark fossil dates from about 400 million years ago, so sharks are older than the dinosaurs.
• The brain to body weight ratio is comparable to that of some mammals, so it can be inferred that sharks are not mindless, instinct driven eating machines, but as intelligent as other animals.
• Sharks don’t go to dentists. They have an almost endless supply of new teeth, which normally get replaced every eight days.
• Most fish lay eggs, which then get fertilized by the male. Sharks almost have ‘normal’ sex. The males have claspers, which are not used to hold onto something, but to deposit the sperm inside the female.
• There are up to 12 pups born at one time, with the pups being small, but fully developed versions of their parents.

Are Sharks Dangerous?

Well, there is no doubt that sharks are dangerous animals, as are many other wild animals. But you are more likely to die in a car accident or die from a snake bite than from a shark bite. Quite often attacks are a case of mistaken identity. The attacked person is simply taken for a seal or other type of prey. Most attacks happen on the surface, so swimmers, snorkelers and surfers are more at risk than divers. The five most dangerous sharks are considered to be the White Shark, the Tiger Shark, the Bull Shark, the Short Fin Mako Shark and the Oceanic Whitetip Shark. Of these sharks, only the Bull Shark is a true coastal species. The others may venture close to shore but are more often found offshore. So encounters are very rare. If you should ever encounter a big shark, then it is best not to move around too much, sink down to the bottom (if you’re a diver) to blend into the surroundings and then to move slowly out of the sharks territory. Chances are it’s just passing through.

My Shark Stories

As I said before, I love sharks!! I haven’t had a single dangerous moment with sharks and I have never felt unsafe when in the company of sharks. Most of the times it’s the poor shark that gets scared. You would too, if you had 10 divers swimming furiously at high speed after you to take your picture, when all you want to do is get a quick snack of some tasty Parrotfish.

Manta Point, Gili Trawangan

I had just become manager of Dive Indonesia. It was an exciting time for me. The weather was great, the ocean flat as a mirror every single day. The days were relaxed with a morning dive to a deeper site and a chilled out shallower dive in the afternoon. At this particular day I had four friends book a morning dive with me. They wanted to see sharks, so I decided to go to Manta Point. Funny name that. I don’t think anyone’s ever seen a manta there, but there are sharks. White and black tip reef sharks. I did a current check and because there was none we dropped straight over where the sharks usually hung out. 22 m straight down. At first I couldn’t see any. I told my divers to stay put on the sand, while I had a look under some overhangs and surely there was one resting on the bottom. It seemed a bit startled and started circling around us. The cameras started to take picture after picture. Then another white-tip appeared and shortly after that another three. It was mesmerizing. They came extremely close, as if to pose for a photo, then swam away to give the other sharks a go. Eventually we had to ascend a bit and two of the sharks followed us for a few minutes. A bit later we saw a black-tip shoot past us a couple of times. All in all an absolutely amazing experience. I have never since had so many sharks come so close to me.

My First And Only Whale Shark

I was living and working at the time on Koh Samui, Thailand. There had been rumours going round the diving community that there is a teenage whale shark lurking around Sail Rock, a dive site just off the north-eastern tip of Koh Pha-Ngan. I was having a scuba diver course and having a very hard time. My student was extremely nervous and I was dreading the next day, with two dives on the agenda. When we arrived at Sail Rock the next day, the ocean was calm and the sun was burning down. We geared up and went for our first dive. Everything went uneventful and smoothly, my student having forgotten all his nervousness. And all the time I had half an eye out for my little friend, the whale shark. The second dive went exactly the same as the first. On the way back to our boat we passed another dive boat. The people there were screaming at us that they had just seen the whale shark below their boat. But my student only had about 50 bar left, so it was back to the boat for us. But when my student was safely on the boat, one of the boat boys told me he’d look after him. I took the chance, dumped my air and went down with Laurent, a friend of mine. We found the shark at about 20 meters. He was just beautiful. About 4,5 meters long and swimming calmly through the water. A few remoras and some suckerfish in its wake. At that point we were the only divers in the water. Laurent swam to the sharks right and I stayed on its left. I was so close to him I could have touched the little fella. I moved forward a little bit and looked him straight in the eye and I still think that he was looking straight back at me, trying to figure me out. It was just magical. We swam with him for another 20 minutes, then we were almost out of air and had to ascent and he disappeared below. Here’s a video of the little fella:

So, What Do I Think?

Accidents and attacks will continue to happen as long as we venture into the ocean. We shouldn’t blame the sharks for that, after all it’s their territory. We should treat them with respect, know what they could do to you and remember that they are wild animals. They are the kings of the ocean and they keep the balance in the seas. No sharks in the ocean could have a negative effect on the food chain in the seas. They are truly amazing animals and we know hardly anything about them compared to some land-based animals. Sharks are definitely worth saving. They shouldn’t end up in shark fins soup or as handbags.

Here are some links, which might be of interest:

• Sharktrust
• Wikipedia entry on sharks
• Shark Research Institute
• Global Shark Attack File

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Three cuttlefish on top of a coral boulder

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