A whale shark making its way in the waters off Talisayan in Kalimantan, surrounded by thousands of little fish and over 20 divers. — Photos: REBECCA MCKINNEY
MORE than 20 divers, most of them Malaysians, felt the bliss of spending almost an hour underwater with four whale sharks.
They went diving at Talisayan in Kalimantan, about 300km south of Sabah, late last month.
They were guided by local experts who knew how to “call” whale sharks to feeding platforms anchored on the open sea.
“When I dived off the boat and saw them down below, I felt fear. I was afraid to press my deflate button and go down,” said Penangite Lai Kong Hooi, 47, a diver with 51 dives notched on his belt.
“I know whale sharks are completely harmless to humans, but when you see how gigantic they are, you feel a sense of terror creeping up in you.”
Two divers manoeuvring to get closer to the whale sharks.
Above the water, local experts energetically shook baskets of chopped-up fish in the water to hold the whale sharks’ attention.
Below the waves, stout ropes anchored to the sea floor more than 100m below swayed vertically so Lai and his friends could comfortably hold on to them so they need not negotiate with the sea current.
The four enormous whale sharks made an ambulatory circuit while tens of thousands of small fish joined the fiesta, all drawn in by the baskets of fish meat that the locals were agitating on the surface.
Gradually, Lai and his friends descended to a depth of between 3m and 5m and went eye-to-eye with the whale sharks.
“They were really eyeing me! They swam to me, their tiny eyes like 20sen coins looking straight at me. Then when they were less than 1m away, they turned.
“While we were enjoying whale shark-watching, it seemed as if the whale sharks were enjoying human-watching,” Lai chuckled.
All the divers, Lai said, were briefed on land beforehand not to touch the whale sharks.
“It is a cardinal rule in diving for us. We are not to touch anything, not even corals because we don’t want to disrupt marine wildlife in anyway. We are just there to watch,” he stressed.
Two whale sharks surrounded by thousands of little fish and the divers in Kalimantan, about 300km south of Sabah.
But two of the divers did inadvertently come into physical contact with one of the whale sharks.
Teh Chin Leong and Steven Tan were watching blissfully when a large whale shark came too close.
As it swerved away, its tail – whose width can equal the height of an adult human – brushed into Teh and Tan.
In a video footage recorded by diver Eow Sulin, Tan was seen being knocked on the head by the lower half of the tail while Teh appeared to be hit solidly by the whole tail from his shoulders to thighs.
But Teh, 57, asserted that the physical contact was mild.
“It was merely a firm push. I cannot begin to describe how gentle whale sharks are. They came as close as they could to look at us. Then when they turned away, they would miss us by inches, except for that one time for my buddy and me.
“They have an amazing sense of awareness despite their size,” Teh said.
While whales are mammals, whale sharks are the largest fish species on the planet.
Whale sharks swim around all day with their mouths wide open, sieving krill, plankton and small fish out of the water.
An adult whale shark can be over 15m long, about the length of five sedans parked bumper to bumper.
