A Whale of a Tale

I wish I could say that I have encountered a whale or two on a dive, but sadly I cannot. Apart from my Girl Scout whale watching trip in the 3rd grade, I did have a brief brush with them on my first trip to Bahia de Los Angeles, the whale shark hub featured in my first post. While I missed the whale sharks on my first trip down there in 2009, I did encounter a pod of fin whales. 

Our group headed out on the panga to the first dive site of the day. When we arrived we were excited to find a pod of fin whales, literally within ten feet of our boat.  

A member of our dive group was so excited that she immediately jumped into the water with her camera, just in time to catch the tail end of a whale... literally.

7 of the 13 whale species are listed as vulnerable or endangered, including the fin whale, despite decades of being protected. I have recently discovered National Geographic documentaries, thanks to Netflix. The past weekend I watched a documentary entitled Whales in Crisis, if you have Netflix I highly recommend checking it out. If you don't, it is also available on Hulu. It's about an hour long and worth every minute.

One of the threats described in this documentary was the harmful effects of sonar. The effect of sonar on marine animals was questioned after numerous dolphins and whales beached themselves in the Bahamas following a US Navy sonar training exercise. The US Navy later released a report in which it took responsibility for the whales found beached with hemorrhaging. It is thought that sonar can cause distress, temporary hearing loss, permanent injury, or even death. In that same report the navy pledged to study the issue further to find a solution.

The World Wildlife Fund's profile on threats to whales and dolphins includes whaling, ship collisions, entanglement in fishing gear, climate change, pollution, and habitat degradation. This excerpt from the National Geographic Channel's Kingdom of the Blue Whales describes the threat of boat collisions and the need for reduced speed in certain whale hotspots. 

Like the whale shark, the slow maturity and reproductive process of whales makes population recovery a slow process. An increasing number of threats calls for greater protection of these creatures. This is the only way we will see the population rebound permanently. 

Sea Turtles

I have been fortunate enough to encounter sea turtles on two dives to date. The first of these encounters occurred on a live aboard dive charter on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, where we literally dove from dawn to dusk with the occasional night dive.

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The second day out to sea our first stop was Pixie Pinnacle. As soon as we descended we were joined by a new dive buddy, the friendly sea turtle. No doubt he was off to hitch a ride on the EAC with Crush and Squirt. :) Totally unperturbed by my presence, he allowed me to follow him and snap some photos.

The second of these encounters occurred in Fiji while diving at Rainbow Reef. I have never seen such a colorful array of fish and coral, pictures of which are to come in a future post so keep an eye out. For now I am particularly interested in the sea turtle I met at the reef. 

Both of the turtles that I met were green sea turtles. Of the seven different species of sea turtle, all are listed in the Endangered Species Program. After doing some online research I found there are an unfortunate number of threats to the sea turtle population. The Sea Turtle Conservancy provides an enlightening summary of some of these threats, which can be found here.

The alteration of beaches poses a threat to the sea turtles ability to reproduce successfully. These alterations include artificial lighting, coastal armoring, coastal development, beach activities, and dredging. Any alteration to the natural landscape of the beach deters the turtles from coming ashore to lay their eggs, leading them to resort to less-than-optimal nesting spots.

Sea turtles meet threats both on land and at sea. They get caught in fishing nets, preventing them from coming to the surface for air and resulting in suffocation. They mistake floating debris such as plasic bags for jelly fish and consume them. Marine pollution and oil spills can result in illness and death. Just because the ocean is vast does not mean we can dump whatever we want in it. Pollutants can become more concentrated as they break down, creating areas of toxic water. None of these threats are specific to sea turtle, but apply to a variety of marine life.

Underwater Forests

One of the most majestic underwater environments is the kelp forest, with giant pillars of kelp reaching up toward the surface and kelp forest creatures around every corner. My first experience with kelp forest diving was on an overnight dive trip with Horizon Charters to San Clemente Island, 55 nautical miles off the coast of San Diego, CA.

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For a diver entering the kelp for the first time it can be a bit unnerving. As I descended into the kelp I lost sight of a clear path to the surface, something a diver relies on should they need to make an emergency ascent.

All these nervous thoughts vanished as I reached the bottom and started to explore the kelp. It is difficult to describe the tranquil atmosphere as I swam by the multitudes of fish and plant life. My favorite kelp forest dweller is without a doubt the Garibaldi, a very colorful and curious character.

Kelp forests span the West Coast of North America, all the way from Alaska to Baja California. Unfortunately the kelp forests are put at risk by natural and human influences alike.

Ecosystems: Impacts on Kelp Forests, on the website for National Marine Sanctuaries, describes many of the threats to kelp forests, focusing mainly on coastal runoff. Examples of coastal runoff are storm drains and sewage. An excess of freshwater, often polluted with pesticides, changes the salt level concentration, which can be harmful to both the kelp and the fish that call it home.

Based on a study done at the University of California Santa Barbara, scientists have presented the argument that overfishing is the greatest threat to kelp forests. Given the long history of overfishing and exploitation on the West Coast, it seems that no-take marine preserves may be the only way to determine the true effect of overfishing as they will uncover the effects of other threats.

Kelp forests are an extremely diverse ecosystem where every participant is important in maintaining stability. Sea otters are essential to the kelp forest ecosystem because they keep the population of creatures such as sea urchins that feed on kelp in check. Sea otter populations are most at risk in the event of an oil spill. When the sea otter population decreases the sea urchin populations explodes.

Fortunately some very important steps are being made in the right direction on this issue, most important of which being the expansion of the California underwater state park system in 2010. More to explore for the underwater adventurers of the world! Kelp forests are definitely a must see for divers and snorkelers alike. For divers I have two kelp forest diving suggestions. You should have enough dive experience to be completely comfortable underwater and you should always carry a dive knife. Should you need to use it to free yourself from the kelp be sure not reach behind yourself and start hacking away in panic, remember your air supply hose is back there too!

The Gentle Giant

For 7 years now I have been on a mission to swim with the largest fish (and shark) in the ocean, the whale shark. Before you think me a crazy daredevil, know that the whale shark has been nicknamed 'the gentle giant' for a reason. They are extremely docile, allowing swimmers and divers to catch a glimpse of them and maybe even hitch a ride if they're lucky. My first two attempts to see them in Ningaloo Reef, Australia and Bahia de Los Angeles, Mexico failed, but you know what they say, third times a charm.


In August of 2010, with a group of fellow divers, I headed south on the long 10-hour drive from San Diego to Bahia de Los Angeles.

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The next day we were on a panga, a Mexican fishing boat, heading to the whale shark feeding grounds with Ricardo, the local (and only) dive operator in BOLA. Once we arrived in the bay, we were surprised to discover the complex whale shark spotting system... Ricardo standing on a platform looking for that dorsal fin.

After looking for an hour we were beginning to think we had missed the whale sharks again, but suddenly Ricardo spotted a fin!

After waiting so long to see these majestic creatures, I thought that I was prepared for their massive size. I jumped in the water and right before my eyes was not just one whale shark but two! My initial reaction was to yell "holy shit!" underwater, a move that resulted in swallowing a lot of sea water. After recovering, and fumbling with my underwater camera, I finally managed to get some shots of the giants.

The sharks we swam with ranged from around 20-25 feet in length, that's bigger than the average SUV! It's hard to tell the length of these sharks from photos of them alone, but when you see a person next to them you can understand my initial reaction. 

My obsession with whale sharks did not end with my first encounter. I plan on heading down to BOLA again on my dive club's annual whale shark expedition. In addition, finally seeing these creatures made me want to find out more about them. Unfortunately, not all my revelations were good.

Whale sharks can be found in the tropical seas and are thought to be migratory animals, returning to the central west coast of Australia every spring. The reason they are so harmless, to humans anyway, is that they are filter feeders. They eat by taking in a big gulp of water, closing their mouths and pushing the water out through their gills, then eating whatever plankton and small fish remain.

Unfortunately, the docile demeanor of the whale shark makes it easy prey. Additionally, whale sharks are highly susceptible to overexploitation due to their large size and slow maturity and reproduction. Whale sharks have few natural predators, the most notable and devastating of these being humans. Despite being listed as vulnerable on the IUCN List of Threatened Species, whale sharks continue to be killed. Like elephants being hunted for their tusks, whale sharks are being hunted for their fins, which go for thousands of dollars in the Eastern Market.

While the hunting of whale sharks is prohibited in many countries, in others it is part of cultural tradition. While it is important to be respectful of cultural traditions, I believe that the survival of a species is more important. If whale sharks continue to be killed in the numbers they are now, the argument will soon become irrelevant as there will be no more left to hunt anyway. This is something that we simply can not allow to happen.

An important step to protecting whale sharks is to learn more about them. Only with more data can we more accurately portray the trend in the whale shark population. ECOCEAN USA is a non-profit organization that has created a Whale Shark Identification Library, a collaborative effort to identify and catalog whale sharks. An individual can submit photographs of their sightings, which can then be used to identify individual whale sharks based on their unique spotted pattern. I have added my encounter to the database and will soon find out if there have been other sightings of the same shark, stay posted!