This Close to Sex!
 

While doing a surface interval on a cloudy but calm November morning, I spotted one, and then another dolphin rolling through the 6 ft. of chop. You never know what you might see when you dive on our reefs. Just before going down for our second dive, I heard our own Larry Townsend explaining some of his underwater hand signals to our buddies. I recognized his signs for shark, lobsters, and others, but then he showed a sign with his thumb and first finger held out about an inch apart. He explained it meant that the experience was "this close to sex." I couldn't imagine ever using that sign and told him, "You're probably just not doing it right."

Two minutes later, five of us went down looking for bugs at the south end of Boynton Ledges. We planned the drop expecting more north current, but followed the current south, knowing that we would soon run out of reef. We poked along looking in every hole, but no luck. Fortunately, after we got to the end of the reef, the current swung around and we followed the outside ledge back to the north. That made it pretty deep and soon everyone was out of air or bottom time except Larry, on Nitrox, and me, hanging high for a long safety stop.

The others were back on the boat by the time Larry joined me at 20 ft. After a couple minutes of calm , Larry suddenly started pointing to the South and slightly downward. He first saw it with its mouth open wide. I turned to see what struck me as a Volkswagen bug coming straight at us. But this car had a white bumper and a spotted cab and a closed mouth about four feet wide - a whale shark! Larry and I automatically separated, bodies facing each other, giving it barely enough room to get between us. Remoras up to four feet long scattered out of the way as it approached. It came between us from my right without slowing.

I once hesitated to reach out and ride a 12-foot manta, thinking I might scare it away. It passed by within inches and I never saw it again. I wasn't going to let this opportunity slip by without at least trying. I held my gun and bugger behind me in my right hand. Quickly, the mouth (was that a nostril), and then the eye passed by at chest height. I reached out with my bare left hand. It didn't seem at all concerned as I stroked it across the gill slits and along its left side. Each gill slit (5" apart) simply closed easily as my hand passed. This wasn't the course sandpaper of a nurse shark or the over-inflated rubber tire of a manatee. This was soft, sensitive skin over giving flesh. As the pectoral fin approached, I decided to go for it. I kicked up and easily hooked my left hand over its dorsal fin. It pulled me,in line with its body. I thought the fin might seem delicate like its side, but it felt rigid and secure. It was smaller than I expected about 20 " high. I didn't want to make him feel encumbered so I kicked to keep pressure off and stroked my hand up and down the fin.

I Watched as Larry moved back toward me, petting along his right side with one hand, the dive-flag line in his other. Suddenly it moved into second gear. For the first time, the pull of the dorsal fin put real pressure on my hand and I just let go. As it moved away, it gently slapped Larry with its thin, vertical tail. Larry saw a heavy fishing line trailing its right side. Maybe he'd caught on it giving a pull on the hook. Maybe I'd bumped it with my gun. Maybe it just had enough fun for one day.

Larry and I were left behind, hovering shoulder to shoulder, still at 20 feet, watching it continue slowly to the north and down. With each slow swish of its' tail, it may have been looking back "over its' shoulder" at us, first from one side, then the other. The remoras scrambled to find new positions as it disappeared.

As we broke the surface, I didn't know what to say. Would anyone believe us? I could barely believe it myself. I wanted to get it all straight in my mind. "How big do you think it was?" "Fifteen feet. Maybe twenty feet. How could you tell?" Just a Juvenile; some are up to 60-feet long. "How many remoras did you see? Were there a half dozen or twenty?" "I don't know. There was just too much information to process in such a short amount of time." The whole thing lasted less than a minute, maybe only 30 seconds. My heart didn't have time to start pounding before it was all over. But to compare it to sex? Larry, I think you're just not doing it right.

Robert Shearer

Interesting Facts:

The whale shark is the largest living shark known to man. It feeds by straining food from water with finger-like filaments, projecting from its gills. The mouth of the whale shark may be up to six feet across. Whale shark teeth are the smallest of any shark and are not used in feeding. This shark species is found offshore in the open ocean. Only rarely has it been seen near shore or coral reefs. Common size is 20 to 25 feet but the whale shark can grow 45 to 50 feet in length.



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