28/10/11 Whalesharks and Dolphins in Baie Ternay

After an eventful weekend with two birthdays to celebrate and lots of activities to take part in, like completing rescue courses, going on whale shark spotting trips and kayaking, we were all pretty tired on Sunday night and retreated reasonably early.

By the time Monday morning came the sun was out promising for a good week of weather at last!! So as always we woke up to do our duties, I think the Monday kitchen group were very tired so we had porridge and porridge only for the first time (which is pretty impressive if you ask me). We then had a methodology lecture that gave us an idea as to what we will be doing once we start surveying, which is very exciting.

By Tuesday everyone has complete their exams and we start getting into the water to do the quadrat and invert methodology dives. On the third dive of the day as we were kitting up we were being signaled by another boat and all of a sudden we were told by a staff member they saw a fin in the water and after some debating as to what it was the fin was identified as……..A WHALE SHARK!!!!!!!! After a quick briefing on how to conduct ourselves while we all madly de-kitted and shoved our mask’s and fin’s on we haphazardly got into the water and spent 15-20 mins or so with an amazing whale shark. A few of the expedition members out on a walk were randomly picked up by a friendly boat skipper who brought them out to join us. We had some amazing videos and photos we all joined together to watch on Tuesday after dinner.

Wednesday: After the turtle walks on the beach for those on the plankton pull we made our way towards the first plankton point and as we did, we spotted Dolphins, we all jumped in with our mask’s and fin’s and watched the Dolphins as they happily swam just below us, for me hearing Dolphins talk for the first time was amazing.

Wednesday to Friday is being run by volunteer members doing their leadership BTEC’s and today (Wednesday, my leadership day) hasn’t gone too badly, so we will see how the rest of the week goes and if any random activities end up in the schedule.

So…so far this week we have been very lucky with 4 or 5 turtle sightings during dives, we have swam with a Whale shark and with Dolphins. Plus the weather has improved so that we will be able to have a BBQ on Friday!

28/10/11 Whalesharks and Dolphins in Baie Ternay