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.

I was going through images from the 2019 season, and I was blown away by all the places we got to visit that year. I forgot how busy our schedule was, especially after what happened in 2020. In 2020, I was so busy feeling sorry for ourselves (for lack of a better word), trying to understand the new normal, that I quickly forgot about what 2019 was like for us. All the wildlife we experienced, all the places we visited, all the magic and the people. It indeed was one of the best seasons we have ever experienced.

I am grateful that we finally see some light in 2021, and there is hope that the world will return to some normalcy again. It needs to because there is so much beauty out there, and it needs to be experienced. Wildlife needs our kind because without tourism and people fighting to protect them and wanting to see them (in the wild), all that will be left are the hunters and gatherers trying to kill or capture them all. When I think of all the wild places left unprotected last year because of covid, it truly breaks my heart. How many animals died because no one was there to watch over them.

I know I sound extreme, but sadly it has come down to that. It is no longer nature that decides what species lives or dies. It is 100% left up to men in suits. They determine what species will be allowed to continue living, what species can be hunted, what species can be harvested. And their decisions are based on how much money can be made (for themselves) by allowing this to happen. It is happening all over the world, and there is no end in sight.

And what is worse is that the illegal trade of these animals is happening at the same time. Poachers and trappers are out there now, catching and killing everything they can get their hands on. So we have politicians deciding the fate of our wildlife (legally- most of the time) and poachers out in the world doing the same thing (illegally).

So wildlife tourism must go on; it has to continue. Because without it, these officials will find another way to make money off of our beloved wildlife. And left unguarded, poachers will continue to slaughter and cage up the rest of them. Wildlife tourism helps fund our politicians and slows down the poachers.

Sorry for such a dark blog this morning. This is part of the journey that I am on, this is what I think about, and it is an essential reminder that the world needs to open up and we need to continue traveling. We need our researchers back out there, our game wardens, and our tourists to continue being a voice for the voiceless. Wildlife needs all of us.

Thank you for reading and I hope to see you out in the world… somewhere… anywhere!

Day Two... A Fun Day at Sea!

The World MUST Continue to open up... Wildlife Depends on it!