Gentle Giants: Whale Sharks of the Galapagos

[KJEmeraldScar]

lol all i can say about this is:

whailord level 78

[phamjohnny11]

i would of shit my pants 

[grassmonkeybutt]

now thats awesome

[judas2969]

galapagos is the best place!!!

[omegagod25]

that is huge that would probbly scare me but i like video

[samarasayshi]

but they're pretty harmless to us...

[jocepe96]

Why do you say <<dont touch them>> ive saw a lot of videos with people stiking on them...

[PupdocDiver]

Galapagos is a protected marine and land reserve: by law, touching any of the animals is forbidden. Aside from this, they don't like to be touched directly- it seems to frighten them off. If you look closely at the videos where people are "riding" them, they are actually holding onto remoras (sucker fish) that have attached themselves to the larger animals. This holds true for riding manta rays as well.

[jocepe96]

Wow, thanks for the Info m8... Its a dream for me to see those gentle monsters... I already have swim with dolphins, but this is really something else. ( by the way, sorry for my poor english, im a french canadian) Can you please tell me aproximatively the cost of that kind of trip in galapagos Island, or, is there an other place that its actually possible to dive with whale sharks?

[PupdocDiver]

Not inexpensive. Including airfare, about $4000 US- includes 2 nights in hotels in Quito, Ecuador (coming & going) plus 7 days on a live aboard diveboat. You can also see them in Utila, Honduras & occasionally Belize.

The Atlanta aquarium has 3 whale sharks in captivity.

[jocepe96]

Oh, i didnt knew that they can be kept in captivity. Its probably in some sort of Lagoon?

[jocepe96]

Omg... thats a big one... Lucky!

[PupdocDiver]

The largest one was about 45 feet long. We had encounters on 7 out of 9 dives at Darwin Island. We were VERY lucky!