July 15, 2021 - Day two with the whale sharks was WOW! We had a really good day at sea, and it was much calmer than the previous day. We still haven’t seen the hundred-plus sharks, but it was fun. I am guessing around 15-ish sharks today... The numbers are building. Yesterday the visibility was amazing, with beautiful clear blue water, but we don’t want that. To find the large gathering of sharks, you need murky blue water filled with fish eggs and plankton. That is where the magic happens. 

By the end of the day, we found that water, which was awesome. The water was thick with eggs. That means the sharks will be making a b-line for the area. Tomorrow should be good with a lot of sharks feeding. My prediction is that by Saturday, the whale shark action is going to be EPIC!!! We will see - hopefully, we will have some fun stories to share. 

As I mentioned, we had about 15 different sharks; they were all feeding and slowly swimming around, gulping up gallons and gallons of egg-rich water. I recognized the shark we had on our first day. It was coke bottle feeding, staying in one spot, and was again very tolerant. It is so much fun finding the same sharks out there each day. It means a lot to me, knowing these sharks return to these waters day after day and year after year. It means that the area is still healthy enough for the animals to return, and that is a very good thing.

Ahh, so back to the feeding shark. I love those coke bottling sharks; they are the ones you dream of encountering. They stay in one spot, suck feeding near the surface. They will often spin in a slow circle as they feed. I stopped swimming and just waited patiently nearby for the shark to spin in my direction. If you get too aggressive and swim at them, they will swim off and find another spot where they can continue feeding without feeling threatened. I was rewarded when it turned in my direction and opened its big mouth, allowing me to snap away. My settings were 1/320, f9 ISO 800. Those seemed to work alright for me today. 

Overall it was fun, and I am happy we have two days left. It gets me fired up for whatever tomorrow brings us...

As always, thank you for reading my friends. And for those of you that comment, I do appreciate them, thank you so much for that.