Journal entry 3

Last week an environmentally responsible conservation tourism group called Aqua-Firma joined MCSS for our whale shark encounters for the week. On the evening of Sunday October 2^nd, Dr. David Rowat gave a lecture at the Sun Resort to the Aqua-Firma clients about MCSS and whale shark conservation in the Seychelles. Afterwards the interns and pilots got to mingle with the Aqua-Firma clients over Sun Coco pizza. Towards the end of the week, the weather finally permitted us to take the Aqua-Firma clients out on a whale shark encounter. The cloud conditions created a perfect window of time for our trip, and what an incredible trip it was! We were able to snorkel with three different sharks over a series of seven encounters. Two of the whale sharks were estimated at about 5 meters while the other shark was around 7 meters. When the photo ID shots were run through the I3S database that identifies individuals, two were returning whale sharks (last seen in 2003 and 2009) and one shark was brand new to the area. That encounter trip was one of our best this season, and both Aqua-Firma and MCSS were privileged to enjoy snorkeling with these amazing animals.

What also made this Aqua-Firma encounter trip one of my personal favorites was that I spotted a manta ray in the water during the whale shark encounter-- or at least that's the story I'm sticking to. I was in the water with some of our Aqua-Firma clients "spotting" the whale shark (meaning I was with the shark directing the clients and boat with my arm which direction the whale shark was moving). All of the clients were behind me so it was basically just the whale shark and I in the area. I struggled to keep up with the shark's steady swimming with my hand in the air, but the whale shark found a thick patch of plankton. I quickly lost sight of the shark because the visibility was so bad. While my head was still in the plankton-rich water I started to make out the shape of a strange white eerie thing. It honestly just looked like a weird crumpled white thing. I could just barely see the shape because the water was so murky with the plankton, but I suddenly realized it was the cephalic lobes of a manta ray! It must have been there feeding on the plankton too, but as soon as I realized what it was, the shape has disappeared. Soon afterwards I was joined by the Aqua-Firma clients and I excitedly told everyone I just saw a manta. So far this season I have been lucky enough to see two manta rays from the boat, but not until that moment had I been able to realize I had been swimming with a manta too. That whale encounter trip ended up being our most successful for the clients and the most fulfilling for me because I had the opportunity to swim with whale sharks and see a manta ray in the water!