Our search for the largest fish in the sea, the whale shark, has been very successful the past few days. We had many snorkeling encounters with these gentle giants and they are impressive. They can grow up to 60 feet, but the ones we saw varied between 20-30 feet in length.
The whale shark is covered with light-colored spots, bands and stripes. Its mouth is large enough to take in a person, and there are 300 rows of tiny (2-3mm), hooked teeth in each jaw. However, these sharks are perfectly harmless to humans, and those we witnessed seemed curious and swam close to investigate. They are filter feeders, roaming the ocean following seasonal food concentrations of zookplankton. They may also remain stationary and vacuum up larger, more dynamic prey such as sardines and anchovies.
Paddleboarding and kayaking rounded out the day today.
We also received our visa extensions for French Polynesia, so we should be headed out into the big blue in the next week. There is a northern blow in the forecast and we plan to take advantage of that on our sail south to Cabo San Lucas.
More to come....
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