They are never there when they need to be
Divers have spent many millions of dollars chasing that elusive glimpse of a whale shark and have failed. Travelling on dive trips to remote locations, spending money on liveaboards and day trips and coming up doughnuts.
We have had divers on their birthdays, wedding anniversaries and milestone dives 100, 1000 etc all wishing to see a whale shark to make that day extra special and what happens, nada, zip, zilch.
Some use the word “elusive” to describe whale sharks, we like to think of them as unreliable. The Loch Ness Monster was elusive, whale sharks not so.
Reliability 1/10
They just keep swimming
Whale sharks have been recorded swimming over 12,000km in a three year period and at just 4km per hour, they just keep doing that.
The average scuba dive swims at about 0.5 km an hour, maybe a bit faster using Scubapro Seawing Novas, slower if you still manage to own a pair of split fins.
This makes it virtually impossible to keep up with the alleged, coolest whale shark and extremely difficult to get the required “if there is no pic, it didn’t happen” or selfie shot.
Whale sharks could learn a lot from the behaviour of the Ramora who are more than happy to pay close attention to divers and fellow marine creatures.
Social Skills – 2/10
All they think about is food
Whale sharks migrate thousands of miles just for food. In fact they only migrate to eat. Whale sharks could have a trip destined for Phuket Thailand and find out there is food in Okinawa, Japan and they head there. Very little thought is given to the divers waiting in Phuket.
They are also lazy eaters neither biting nor chewing their food and they mostly sieve plankton through their gills for nourishment. They process nutrients from about 6,000 litres of water a minute and don’t chew any of it. I mean, what is the point of having almost 3,000 teeth (some on their eyes) if you are not going to chew your food?
Food etiquette 2/10
They only come in one colour
At first, the unique blue and white spotty pattern can be pretty impressive, however, stare at it long enough and it does become hypnotic …..
Ok, so scientists say that they all have a unique spotty pattern that is akin to a human’s fingerprint. However, who really knows what their best friend’s fingerprint looks like? I don’t think too many people know the difference between a radial loop, ulnar loop, double loop or central pocket loop nor do the different spots on a whale shark.
On the other hand, the humble Butterflyfish wear intricate patterns with striking backgrounds of blue, red, orange, or yellow. Many have dark bands across their eyes and round, eye-like dots on their flanks to confuse predators.
The saying is, that a Leopard never changes its spots, not a whale shark….
Colour Rating 3/10
