Whale Shark Rodeo May 11-25, 2013

[Doc]

Whale Shark Rodeo Saturday May 11-18 and 18-25, 2013

We will be going down to CocoView during the May timeframe leading up to the Full Moon.

I'm not selling anything here, but I thought this headline (which has a lot of truth to it) would grab some attention and maybe you'd want to come diving with a few of us old time Whale Shark Wranglers.

If you want to join us call Debbie or Liz at 800 282-8932 (Roatan Charter) and check for availability.

We go out on a shore night dive every night and get 25 to 27 logged dives in a week. This is a stinky-wet bunch of friendly divers. It would be great to have some :sblogo: friends to join us. I am not your trip leader or instructor, but I will go diving with you if you would like and point out bunches of cool micro critters that are all over the South side's shallow Sunlit walls. Like this: Roatan South side CoCoView pictures by Doc_Adelman - Photobucket

Optional Whale Shark Money-back Guarantee: Give me $1000 cash and I guarantee you'll see a Whale Shark. If not, I'll give you your money back.

Alright now, lets be serious. This is the single best time of year to maximize your chances for a Whale Shark. In 30+ trips there (covering some 55+ weeks) I have seen 3 of them, so that there tells you how this might work out. I been told for a fact that I missed two as I was busy looking at something the size of a pea. Now that there are faster boats available and there is greater communication across the island's captains, the odds improve. I may have only seen three Whale Sharks, but the Ocean is alive with critters during this time period. We have seen three documented Killer Whales, so there's that.

Again- this isn't a commercial post or offer, but I just thought it would be fun to offer up an excuse to get together and go diving. I'll be there for two weeks, join us for one, either or both. It would be nice to meet the people behind the keyboards.

 

[rob@diveinutila.com]

Chances of seeing whale shark are variable as ever - even more so from Roatan than from Utila. But at the right time your can see them every day for several days or encounter several in a single trip - often with mobula rays, the occasional manta, and dolphins around at the same time.

I ask just one thing. Which ever company you go whale sharking with make sure they know what they are doing and are observing the guidelines and regulations concerned with whale shark encounters or at least showing some attempt/respect for the animal. Operators from Roatan running whale shark encounter trips towards Utila are notorious for completely ignoring the published encounter guidelines and have consequently caused hazard for both the whale shark, people in the water with the shark and occasionally even for other boats in the vicinity.

 

[Hank49]

How do you pursue viewing whale sharks in Roatan, Doc? Here, at Gladden, they come to eat snapper eggs during the mass spawns. Is there something there that draws them like the spawning action here?

 

[laurenceh]

we see the majority of our whale sharks on utila during the run up to and right after full moons when the snapper are spawning. agree with rob@diveinutila above, tell those roatan skippers to follow the rules and stop ploughing into the middle of the boils and potentially injuring the whale sharks. its happened several times in the last couple of years and always a boat from roatan.

 

[RTBDiver]

tell those roatan skippers to follow the rules and stop ploughing into the middle of the boils and potentially injuring the whale sharks. .

LOL, Tell the Roatan Skippers?? Tell them what? Stop or I will tell on you??We all know they are all out the to make money, Roatan, Utila, Mainland Etc...Face it, The whale sharks would be much better off if their appearances were never promoted but reading Utila stuff one would think that they are abundant. As long as money is to be made your crazy to think you can control it in Honduras , If Utila stopped promoting them, doing the Rodeos , selling the Videos then maybe there would be a loss of intrest, ever consider that part of the equation?

 

[Doc]

Rob, now get a grip.... We'll be using Blackhawk helicopters borrowed from the Honduran military and be dropping into the water while hovering the required 7' above the sea.

C'mon guys, really?

We won't be hurting them. They don't mind the lariats once you've hit them with the stun grenades.

I mean, really.

And Hank- I got a 75 gallon barrel of Snapper Eggs ordered up from Sam's Club in Tegucigalpa- we're having them UPS'd over to Roatan. You want me to grab you up one as well? Let me know because Costco has a better deal when you buy a two-pack but they use FedEx and that runs only weekdays to Roatan.

I know that everyone was upset last year when we were dumping the barrels from the hopticopters and a barrel fell out and conked a Whale Shark on his ass (or where you might assume that should/would be) but on a positive note, he did cough up both Gepetto and Pinocchio, so we did get some Carbon Credits for that.

Remember the $1000 Whale Shark Guarantee !

Otherwise, like I said in the original post, we're just going to dive 5x a day and see what we see.

 

[RTBDiver]

25-30 footer spotted a couple days last week off AKR, Also some whales reported off the Golf course area. Enjoy the small stuff , go slow and realize the big stuff almost ever comes by when you have your wide angle lens

 

[Doc]

25-30 footer spotted a couple days last week off AKR, Also some whales reported off the Golf course area. Enjoy the small stuff , go slow and realize the big stuff almost ever comes by when you have your wide angle lens

That's about it

 

[Hank49]

And Hank- I got a 75 gallon barrel of Snapper Eggs ordered up from Sam's Club in Tegucigalpa- we're having them UPS'd over to Roatan. You want me to grab you up one as well? Let me know because Costco has a better deal when you buy a two-pack but they use FedEx and that runs only weekdays to Roatan.

I know that everyone was upset last year when we were dumping the barrels from the hopticopters and a barrel fell out and conked a Whale Shark on his ass (or where you might assume that should/would be) but on a positive note, he did cough up both Gepetto and Pinocchio, so we did get some Carbon Credits for that.
.

Send the barrels of eggs here and I'll leave a chum trail with it on my way to Roatan. Belize....."look at the whale sharks.....so beautiful.....eating all the snapper eggs..."....grrrrrr.