Whale sharks do exist!

Utila has not changed much in 2,5 years. A couple of new restaurants have opened, one divecenter has moved and another opened and closed a few times and a couple of old houses along the main street have been replaced with new ones.

The day after arriving on Utila, I walked into Altons diveshop and what a bizarre feeling it was. It was almost like I had just been away for a few weeks – some of the same people still around and the atmosphere of the diveshop still the same. Seeing the sunset from the top of the dock again was magic.

Anyways, the days are passing in a typical slow Caribbean manner.

6 AM Get out of bed – looking out the window to see what the weather is like and watching the fishermen still fishing on the dive sites.

6.45AM Loading the boat and having a cup of coffe on the dock

8AM Going diving!

12AM Back to the diveshop – offloading and reloading of boat

1PM Either going diving again or reading in the shadow somewhere

5PM Beer....

And then finishing the day with dinner somewhere, then going to bed and start all over again next day.

Ok, so the headline today divulged that I finally met the gentle giant. After such long time, and being so many places around the world hoping to see the whale shark, it was finally my turn. Between dives yesterday morning there was suddenly a lot of comunications between the different captains on the radio, and we could sense that there was something going on. When we saw the seabirds flying low over the water, and the tunas «boiling» we new there were whale sharks around. We arrived at the site and almost immedeately the captain rushed us into the water, almost landing on top of the gigantic animal. I was so close I could have touched him, but just stared completely amazed at him while he decended into the deep again. We circled the site for another 40 minutes before we enterede the water again, and this time I could follow the whale shark in a depth of 2-3m before I had to ascend for air and the whale shark dissapeared into the deep blue. It was a magic moment, and I loved every second of it.

I also have an admission to make. I kill lionfish.

This beautful fish  is not a natural part of the environment of the reefs here, and as they have no natural predators, are hungry bastards and bred like rabbits, they are a threat to the ecobalance of the reef. In other parts of the world, the moray and groupers eat lionfish, but as they are alreay endangered here, and the few that are around does not realize that this strange looking fish can be a delicacy, the lionfish is left alone.

They were first spotted on the reefs around Utia little over a year ago, and now they can be seen on almost every divesite. Local marine biologists urge DMs and Instructors on the Island to kill them and if possible, collect samples for them for further research.

So this is what happened yesterday. Me, another DM and an instructor brought our weapon of choice (spear) and went out lionfish hunting. As we went with a group of resort divers, we had to allow them to see the fish/take a photo of the beautiful speciment, and then we could go in for the kill. Kind of bizarre. Anyway, the reefs of Utila are now «freed» of another 6 lionfish. RIP.

My apartment building seen from one of the divesites