#783
Riding a Whale Shark
dontdiveenuf - 6/17/2013 2:42 PM
Category: General
Replies: 3

I’m not sure who ticks me off more - the kid that jumps on the back of a whale shark for a joy ride, or the newscasters that try to make this sound more dangerous than it was:

http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/us/2013/06/17/newday-boy-ri...ides-whale-shark.cnn

I wonder how he’d like it if he was just walking down the street minding his own business, and a dwarf suddenly jumped on his back and expected to be hauled along, without a by-your-leave?
#318
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loydavill - 6/17/2013 5:16 PM
I saw this same article on yahoo earlier today and I was not happy to see the kid hanging and riding the whale shark’s fin. To him, it was a fun thing to do and I believe he did this out of ignorance. Unfortunately, ignorance is what is hurting much of our sea life. At the end of the article, the kid did say he would do it all over again, except that this time he would not touch it, rather just swim along side. If nothing else, I hope that this story can turn in to a positive thing and educate others.
#20387
LatitudeAdjustment - 6/18/2013 8:23 AM
The joy ride may have been fun, dangerous no, stupid yes. Everyplace I’ve ever been that has whalesharks prohibits this because it ticks off the whaleshark and they leave taking the tourist dollars with them.

In Holbox Mexoco we were told if one snorkeler touched the whaleshare the boat was going home and no refunds. The rulles were very clear, no touching and don’t get in their path. I did see a diver get on the back of a whaleshark and our Capitan called it in!

In the Galapagos, same rules but Scuba allowed. We did have on diver back roll off the panga onto the back of a hammerhead, now that could have been dangerous!
#4002
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WarmWaterTurner - 6/19/2013 1:02 PM
My family and I just returned from a visit to the whaleshark area just north of Cancun. Never having done so before - it was an amazing adventure and will not soon be forgotten. I was very glad to see that as soon as we arrived a Marine Park boat arrived and made certain all aboard knew the rules. As a matter of fact - one of the passengers on the boat was summarily chastized for dumping the remains of a can drink in the water where the whalesharks were feeding.