Swimming with Sharks

I jumped from the boat and plunged feet-first into the ocean. As the water gently swirled around me, my body breached back to the surface with natural saltwater buoyancy. Submerged in the sea with eyes wide open and a snorkel full of air, I stared down into the clear cyan depths...and into a mouth large enough to bite me in half.

I was not afraid. I was amazed. Despite its enormous mouth and stigmatized tell-tale dorsal fin, the whale shark, unlike it's more menacing cousins, holds no threat or appetite for wounded seals. As I stared at the gentle giant fish it swam right by me, and I kicked my flippers in hot pursuit, observing his spotted body gracefully gliding through the Mozambique Channel until he disappeared deeper into the blue abyss. 

That was only one experience of awe at Nosy Be, Madagascar. After our regional Volunteer Advisory Council meeting, 14 other Volunteers and I arranged a guided day-long seafaring tour. Within 20 minutes of being on the water, we had our first sighting- but it wasn't a whale shark. Instead, it was a breaching Omura's whale, the rarest whale in the world! We didn't get to see it for long, but soon after we encountered the meat of our sea adventure sandwich... the whale sharks. In all, I swam with four whale sharks, the largest being about 10 meters long (equivalent to the height of a three-story building!). To my knowledge, I've never been near a wild living animal that large...and it was probably the coolest thing I've ever done to swim with one. But even the whale sharks weren't the end of the day's wonders (they were just the meat of the sandwich, remember?). After the sharks, we went snorkeling in the coral of a near-by island to check out some psychedelic tropical fish... and giant sea turtles munching on ocean grass. You know those plastic kid's sandboxes that are shaped like a giant turtle? Well, these sea turtles were that big, but taller. I'm absolutely sure I could've ridden one if I tried. 

I will certainly remember this wild sea-creature day for the rest of my life. With this experience, I feel like I've already dove deeper into Madagascar and the Peace Corps than I'd hoped to. I think that if a whale shark had actually eaten me, I wouldn't have even been mad about it. In the end, all I can say to sun it up is... Wow.

A whale shark strolling through the ocean with a gang of
feeder fish.
This is a still shot taken from Madagascar Peace Corps 
Volunteer Tyler Chase's GoPro camera footage.

Madagascar Peace Corps Volunteer Astara swims right
above a young whale shark.

This is a still shot taken from Madagascar Peace Corps 

Volunteer Tyler Chase's GoPro camera footage.

Soaking in the wonders of the ocean after our regional VAC 
meeting.