Wednesday, November 18, 1998 – Bahia de La Paz
G’day everyone,
Today was an absolutely spectacular day. In fact, I reckon for large fish encounters, it has been the highlight so far. The morning began slowly, with re-provisioning being the order of the day for Patricia while checking out i.e. bureaucracy was DJ’s lark. Thanks to John Riffe, all of this was made a synch. John helped us out tremendously in getting around in La Paz as well as arranging for our slip at the fuel dock. We all thank him warmly for his efforts on our behalf. John has been active in the Sea of Cortez for years and is heavily tied in with the Sea Watch project. I take it you have all filled out the petition I mentioned yesterday! http://www.seawatch.org/cgi-in/Form_processor/Forms/petition.cgi
Besides being sensational, today was also one of those days that reminds you how small the world is. On my way down the dock to the STARSHIP, I passed a gentlemen who obviously seemed to recognize me. Sure enough, it was Vince, a guest on board Mike Balls Live-aboard dive vessel MV SpoilSport, which Ib and I used to work on prior to this gig. I guess it had to happen eventually. Anyhow, after briefly catching up with Vince we headed off to find some Whale sharks which have reputedly been hanging around just of the coast of La Paz.
All hands were on the fly bridge or hanging from the mast looking out for telltale signs of the sharks. After searching up and down the murky water we did briefly see one juvenile but it dived deep before we could shout "whale-ho". Two hours later we decided to make one final pass in completely the opposite direction.
The STARSHIP Whale shark spotters (Niki, DJ and Ib)
This decision resulted in all of us having encounters with several 5-7m (15-21’) Whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) and large pacific Manta rays (Manta alfredi) for over two hours. Both species belong to the elasmobranch family, are the worlds largest fish and ray respectively and totally harmless. In contrast to teleost fish (bony fish), elasmobrachs have a cartilaginous (similar to our ears and noses) skeleton. Whale sharks feed on a variety of planktonic (free floating organisms) and nektonic prey which include small crustaceans, schooling fishes and at times on tuna and squid. They do this by opening up their huge transverse mouth, which contains numerous minute teeth (300 rows in each jaw!). By means of suction feeding, water and prey rush into the mouth and their gills, which are modified internally into filtering screens.
One of the sharks coming to the surface. Notice the remora or suckerfish (Echeneis
naucrates)
In our case, it seemed the sharks were feeding not only on the plankton in the water, which made visibility rather poor, but also on the numerous jellyfish that ended up stinging most of us. A small price to pay I thought. We all took turns getting into the water with these behemoths. The 3-4 sharks were hardly phased by our presence and seemed to be in a feeding frenzy. At times they would just stick their heads to the surface while the body was hanging down and start what seemed like gargling. We are one of the few fortunate people in this world who have had the opportunity to observe Whale Sharks feeding in this fashion - what a tremendous experience. The rays on the other hand were very skittish. They were often on the periphery but also got stuck into the bountiful food. We were concentrating more on the sharks, as we all knew that at the Socorro islands we should get the Manta thrill of a life time….
Lunch time for the whale shark and a pilot fish (Naucrates ductor)
avoiding becoming a meal
So there you go. Another glorious day on the STARSHIP Millennium Voyage. It is hard to think that such gentle giants are killed for their fins.
Regards,
Rich
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