Whale Shark at Koh Doc Mai

Unexpected close encounter with TWO whale sharks

Whale Shark Diving Phuket

On 27th June, during a nice as usual dive in Koh Doc Mai, small island between Phuket and Phi Phi Island me and the rest of the diving group have been witnesses of a kind of underwater miracle. After about 30-35 minutes diving we were gradually ascending along the wall until, at the depth of 12 meters, I heard the loud and persistent noise from the shaker of another dive guide located about 30 meters further than me. Judging from the way my colleague shook his tool, I understood that he wanted to get the attention of everybody, maybe because something very interesting was in the area, but of course I would have never been expecting a whale shark!

At this point me and the rest of the dive group left the wall, heading to the blue, where slowly I've seen a shadow getting closer and bigger. After a few seconds, still incredulous and taken by an indescribable emotion I've found myself exactly in front of the huge head of this about 9 meters long whale shark. After about 30 seconds or so spent swimming strongly to follow the giant, he decided to investigate on us little divers so he started to turn all around us...incredible, but even more incredible when I turned myself and I spotted a second whale shark coming, this one about 6 meters long. After joining each other, despite their size, they gracefully twirled around us for a couple of times more and then unfortunately took their way and quickly disappeared in the blue. I don't know how long they spent with us, I lost the track of time, but those have been moments of pure, genuine emotion!

This magic Thailand never stops to give surprises, both on land and at sea...but in this case, especially at the sea!!!

Written on 27th June 2011 by Francesco Ferrari

Back to Diving Phuket News