Seeing Jack! Location: Gladden Spit - Belize Day 9 by Wayne & Karen Brown

This time we decided that Wayne would dive with Sean and the other divers and Karen would snorkel on the surface with Philip, Anne-Marie's brother. That way if a whale shark swam up to the surface, as they often do, Karen would be right there to take some pictures.

Sean once again led the first dive of the day. As they were descending from the surface, Wayne saw a whale shark! He pointed it out to everyone, but it was very deep -- more than 100 feet underwater. Wayne saw it but Karen did not. It was just too far away for her. Unfortunately, the whale shark was too deep and too far away to get any good identifying photos of it to see if was a whale shark we had seen previously.

The scuba divers continued swimming along the drop-off, searching first for schools of snappers and of course the whale sharks that accompany them. Unfortunately, that was the only whale shark seen during the first dive. Near the end of the dive the divers did briefly see a bull shark swim by down below them. It just ignored them. It was looking for snapper. The bull sharks irritate the fishermen because the bull sharks will grab the snappers off the fishing lines as the fishermen are trying to pull the snappers onto their boats.

After exiting the water from the first dive, as we pass by a fishing boat we see the fishermen hauling an 8-foot long bull shark onto their boat. They tell us that the shark had been eating the snapper of their fishing lines that they had caught. This bull shark got caught on one of the hooks as it tried to eat the snapper and died.

At our lunch break at our usual spot in the calm, shallow area, we just relaxed on the boat. Karen stood on the top deck and kept an eye out for manatees. But not one manatee came to see us today! We were very disappointed.

Around 3:30 in the afternoon, Sean said it was time to go and try again to find whale sharks. As we were heading back out to the deep water we came alongside a small fishing boat. The men in the boat were pointing to something in the water that looked really big and dark-colored. Maybe a whale shark, they said. Well, it wasn't a whale shark. It was our four manatee friends that we saw yesterday. The four of them together looked like one big animal at first! They were just swimming along in the deep water. We were wondering where they were going and if they would be back in the shallow water later.

We all jumped back in the water for a second time today. This time we just swam and swam. No whale sharks! Wayne did get to swim with a school of jack. These jacks were about 18 inches long. These jacks were not here to eat the eggs of the snappers as the whale sharks were doing. Jacks eat smaller fish. These jacks were probably looking for any small fish that may be around to eat the snapper eggs.

These schooling jack were like our group of divers. If you have been following every day of our expedition you have discovered that even though whale sharks are the biggest shark on the planet they are hard to find. When we swim as a group of divers we are like the school of jack. Lots of divers gives us lots of eyes looking in different directions at the same time for our prey -- whale sharks. If we were all looking in the same direction we would not see a whale shark passing by in the opposite direction. Lots of jacks swimming together in a school gives them lots of eyes looking in different directions at the same time for their prey -- smaller fish!

After seeing the jack we did not see much of anything except lots of blue water -- until the very end of the dive time! All of a sudden everything started to happen at once. Two whale sharks came by in the very deep water. Sean saw one and some other divers saw another. Neither one of us saw them. But at the same time we did see a dolphin. It swam near us for a few seconds and then went on its way...It was probably thinking...Just some more boring humans.

Join us tomorrow for our very last chance to dive with whale sharks and see what we find! The could be our best whale shark experience, yet!

Best Fishes,
Wayne & Karen Brown

This whale shark was too deep for Wayne to get a good picture that we need to see its identifying spots.

These fishermen are pulling in a bull shark that got caught on their fishing line.

These schooling jack are looking for smaller fish that might come here to eat the snapper eggs.

This Atlantic bottle-nosed dolphin cruises by one of our divers.

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