Diving with whale sharks is pretty much top of every serious scuba diver’s bucket list. So diving Sail Rock is imperative as it is regarded as the best dive site in the Gulf of Thailand and it’s made all the more special with a visit from a large whale shark measuring 4 meters or more!
So what’s it like diving with whale sharks?
Emerging out of the blue, I saw it, and immediately wanted to scream with pure delight! While they may be gentle giants, they are still giants, and this was larger than any living thing I had ever seen. But it had an even bigger presence, and I felt aghast at its sheer size and beauty.
For many divers, swimming with a whale shark is the pinnacle of underwater experiences. They are mysterious creatures with little being known about their migration, mating, and their regular lives. Part of our reasoning for travelling all the way to Sail Rock is because it’s a common site for these creatures to visit at this time of year. It’s a whale shark hotspot along with Chumphon, Shark Island and Green Rock. Many divers go years without spotting a whale shark as it is all about being in the right place at the right time.
The high I felt at being underwater and having my camera with me to film this animal was overwhelming. I took back all my negative thoughts about getting up so early in the morning since I was gifted with time in the water diving with a whale shark. I was so shaken by my emotions at my first whale shark sighting that my footage isn’t as daring as it could be. But even my flustered handiwork couldn’t stop this footage from being a must-watch in my archives.
The whale shark is a slow-moving filter-feeding shark. Despite its size, the whale shark does not pose a significant danger to humans. Although massive, whale sharks are quite docile and younger whale sharks are actually quite gentle and have been known to play with divers.
It is advised not to get too close when diving with whale sharks and certainly don’t try to touch them or swim in front or directly behind them. They are huge powerful animals and you don’t want to accidentally get knocked by their tail fin. To get the best and longest experience you can, don’t stress out the whale sharks or get in their way. Although they are slow-moving they can disappear fast and dive down to depth to escape divers that are bothering them.
Whale sharks have slow, graceful movements but when you swim alongside them at a full pace you soon discover that it’s hard to keep up with them for more than a minute or so. Whale sharks frequently circle around feeding, especially around pinnacles and seamounts. That means that even when a whale shark looks like it’s leaving a dive site, it may just be circling around so there is absolutely no point in trying to chase them.
The whale shark is the largest non-cetacean animal in the sea. The average size of adult whale sharks is estimated at 9.7 metres and 9,000 kg. The whale shark is a filter feeder – one of only three known filter-feeding shark species (along with the basking shark and the megamouth shark). It feeds on macro-algae, plankton, krill, Christmas Island red crab larvae, small nektonic life such as small squid or vertebrates and small fish.
Preferring warm waters, whale sharks populate all tropical seas and are very common visitors to the waters of Koh Tao.
If you are keen to dive with a whale shark then choose Big Blue Diving and we’ll do our best to get you the experience you’re looking for. Since we’re one of the only centres on the island with a fleet of dive boats to choose from, we’re more flexible when words gets out that there’s a whale shark in the area. Check out our Open Water Diver course so that you can get the training you need to go scuba diving with these amazing creatures. Some of our lucky Open Water students have even seen whale sharks on their course training dives! Don’t think scuba diving is for you? Why not try freediving? Our freedivers also get to dive with whale sharks and usually have completely unique experiences since they’re totally silent underwater and don’t scare away the marine animals. No matter how you want to travel underwater to see a whale shark, we can teach you!
