Divers Encounter 20-Foot Whale Shark

November 16, 2008

Release from: Kevin Lollar
News-Press.com (Florida)

Brett Peters and Chris Zolman went offshore last week looking for some big fish to spear. They ran into the biggest fish either had ever seen — a 20-foot whale shark.

When Peters' boat pulled up to the site of the Pegasus, a 110-foot, steel-hulled tug sunk in 1999 as an artificial reef 28 miles west of Redfish Pass, Zolman saw something unexpected in the water.

"There were a bunch of cobia, and under them was a shadow," said Zolman, 31, of Fort Myers. "It started surfacing. When we first saw it, we were ecstatic. We were flipping out."

After dropping anchor, Zolman and Peters, 27, also of Fort Myers, put on their dive gear and got into the water with the big fish.

Peters shot video with a Sony digital camera in an underwater housing.

"I spent the next five minutes videoing it," Peters said. "It was overwhelming. It was huge but wasn't scary-looking because it was so docile. It just seemed like it wanted to hang out with you."

The big fish didn't spook even when Zolman shot a couple of its attendant cobia; when the divers descended to the wreck, it followed and returned to the surface with them before finally disappearing.

Whale sharks are usually solitary animals, but they congregate at feeding areas such as the northern Gulf of Mexico, Holbox, Mexico, Belize, Utila in the Bay Islands of Honduras, and the northwest coast of Cuba, said Bob Hueter, director of Mote Marine Laboratory's Center for Shark Research.

Mote researchers have been tagging whale sharks off Holbox since 2003.

As to why the shark stayed with the divers, Hueter had a theory.

"Bubbles are sometimes used to attract whale sharks at some dive sites like Belize," he said. "In Belize, whale sharks come in to feed on the spawn of reef fish, and bubbles are thought to mimic the spawn. It would be interesting to know where this animal came from. If it was from Belize, maybe it had been accustomed to be attracted to bubbles."

Over the past couple of months, Hueter has received a few reports of whale sharks off Florida's west coast and asked anyone seeing a whale shark to report it to Mote.

"Whale shark sightings are sporadic, but they do happen this time of year," Hueter said. "We're trying to piece together what their pattern is in the Gulf. With better sighting data, we're trying to determine seasonality. And people need to keep an eye out for any tags on the animal."

In the early 1990s, a whale shark was spotted less than a mile from the beach off Longboat Key near Sarasota, but the fish usually stay well off shore.

At one point in his encounter, Zolman touched the whale shark's tail, which prompted the fish's only sudden movement, a swift flick of the tail like a dog bitten by a flea.

"I often get sighting information about people who are seen grabbing and riding whale sharks," Hueter said. "It happens, but we'd certainly not want to promote the idea. It's better to keep a good distance."

At Holbox, Mexican scientists have established strict rules for interacting with whale sharks so human behavior doesn't alter shark behavior; the No. 1 rule is stay at least six feet away from the animal.

Of course, Zolman and Peters went to the Pegasus to spear fish, and their take for the day was two cobia (35 and 43 pounds), a 24-inch gag grouper, and several snapper in the 5-pound range.

"It was a really neat, special day," Zolman said. "Even if we hadn't gotten any fish, the sighting was more than we could ask for."