Marc's Public Blog - Diving


All | Aquariums | Arduino | Btrfs | Cars | Cats | Clubbing | Computers | Diving | Dreamstate | Edc | Electronics | Exercising | Festivals | Flying | Halloween | Hbot | Hiking | Linux | Linuxha | Monuments | Museums | Oshkosh | Outings | Public | Rc | Sciencemuseums | Solar | Tfsf | Trips

This is a collection of my blog entries and experiences with diving.
You can find all the pictures I've taken here, and read below for recountings of my more recent trips:

Table of Content for diving:

More pages: April 2024 October 2023 May 2023 December 2022 November 2021 October 2021 November 2019 December 2018 November 2018 June 2018 May 2018 December 2017 October 2017 April 2016 January 2016 July 2015 May 2015 January 2015 October 2014 June 2014 May 2014 January 2014 November 2013 February 2013 September 2012 June 2012 January 2011 September 2010 August 2010 May 2010 August 2009 January 2009 August 2008 February 2008 January 2007 November 2006 October 2006 January 2006 September 2005 August 2005 June 2004 January 2004 July 2003 January 2003



2018/06/11 Diving with Whale Sharks at Oslob, Philippines
π 2018-06-11 06:00 in Diving
While we were Diving with the Philippines Siren, we had a special dive where we got to see a lot of whale sharks (around 10 or so).

So, the story goes that the local fishermen started feeding the whalesharks to keep them away from where they were fishing, because they were getting in the way. Eventually they grew to like them, and figured it was better to feed them and show them to tourists than to fish.

Snorklers get to wait a long time and spend only 10-15m in the water. Divers however get to spend whatever time they'd like (1h+ for us) and see them underwater for real. I've always been told that whalesharks don't like bubbles (which is true of sharks), but those not only didn't mind, but at least some actually liked our bubbles. One of them followed us away from the food to swim around us and dance in our bubbles.

As for the question of whether this prevents the whales from otherwise eating naturally, they only get fed in the morning, and they do migrate away to live and eat elsewhere, so it doesn't seem to be a real problem. I'm hopeful that it's a net positive, especially if it gets all those people to use the money to live instead of (over-)fishing.
Still, as I found out later, the place remains controversial, at best, more details here: http://dive-bohol.com/conservation/5-reasons-not-go-oslob
I went with a gopro for filming in the left hand, and took pictures with my camera in the right hand. I then took a few screen grabs from the 4K video to supplement the pictures taken by the camera.

So, speaking of pictures:



Here's a 4K video of the encounters:

And more pictures below:




sadly, our friend whale shark had a lot of parasites on it
sadly, our friend whale shark had a lot of parasites on it





Half way through the dive, we had to reposition and noticed 2 cuttlefish at the bottom, one was doing a very good weed impression:


don't look at me, I'm a weed
don't look at me, I'm a weed

Back to whalesharks:








this one loved bubbles
this one loved bubbles

yeah, bubbles
yeah, bubbles

not just one, but 2, then 3, and up to 7 whalesharks
not just one, but 2, then 3, and up to 7 whalesharks

chasing bubbles again
chasing bubbles again


So that was it, it was a lot of fun and the shalesharks seemed happy enough, at least with us, divers.


More pages: April 2024 October 2023 May 2023 December 2022 November 2021 October 2021 November 2019 December 2018 November 2018 June 2018 May 2018 December 2017 October 2017 April 2016 January 2016 July 2015 May 2015 January 2015 October 2014 June 2014 May 2014 January 2014 November 2013 February 2013 September 2012 June 2012 January 2011 September 2010 August 2010 May 2010 August 2009 January 2009 August 2008 February 2008 January 2007 November 2006 October 2006 January 2006 September 2005 August 2005 June 2004 January 2004 July 2003 January 2003

Contact Email