Actually, he swims with the biggest of all fishes.
This is a whale shark - a huge, unflappable plankton eater that scours the world’s warmer oceans.
Did I mention that they were huge? Note the tiny (adult sized human), swimming beside this guy as he feeds. He is in the process of opening his mouth to filter - and the dark spots you see on either side are sensitive olfactory organs used to help him find plankton.
Besides being huge, they seem to carry their own biosystem with them. That silvery halo in front of the whale shark is made up of thousands of fish that travel along with him. (Click the photo to open the full size image to get a better idea about the fish support group).
A little better view of the fishy entourage. Like I said, there were millions of the little buggers following the whale shark around. The underwater photos were taken with a little Pentax Optio W10 camera (now replaced by the W30 and W60 models). Not bad for a little digital camera you throw in your travel bag for convenience.
These guys are described as docile - but we still worried about harrowing animals for our own amusement while causing them distress. However, they really don’t seem to care - they just lazily turn away from you if you get too close, and continue feeding. They are massive and powerful - and could skitter away in an instant if they wanted. But they don’t - instead just swimming in circles feeding. After swimming with the whale sharks, we came home and watched the sun set.
It was a GOOD day.
