Whale shark in Gulf Shores 8-2-09

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Wayfarer2

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Messages
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Location
Detroit, MI is home but i am always on the road
# of dives
200 - 499
I was on a trip yesterday on the Down Under out of gulf shores. When we arrived at Atlantis our second site of the day, the dive master came up from tying in and was excited, telling us that there was a whale shark circling our mooring line and sure enough there was. For 45 minutes he stayed close to us at about 40 feet and repeatedly approached us, some times very closely, even occasionally brushing divers. I was so jazzed about the whale shark that I hardly paid attention to the three dolphins buzzing around it from time to time. Truly a magical dive! This was the second whale shark they have seen in a week and hopefully there will be more later this week on the Oriskany trip.

The only bummer was that after a very minor flood of my camera the day before I didn’t have it on board. Also I am going to be diving my 100,s for the rest of the week just in case we meet another one.
 
How was the visibility on the dive? I did the same dive with Down Under Dive shop (I think) on their Newton a few summers back. We did one of the YDT's & the Atlantis.
 
The top layer of water is a murky 5-10 feet of viz but when you break out in to the cooler water at 37-43 feet it opens up to 40’+ of viz.
 
I was on the same charter and I had my camera. Got some decent pictures of the whale shark given the visibility.

Murph
 
I was on the same charter and I had my camera. Got some decent pictures of the whale shark given the visibility.

Murph

:worthless:

Michael
 
MAN! What an experience!! I guess that explains where all of the remoras have been the past couple of days. Did anybody take a shot at any of the cobia; saw a couple of monsters on her.

Im gonna see one some day!!!
 
Murph,
You have some great photos, especially the third one posted. However, the photos could be tremendously improved if you did a simple "autofix" in any photo editing program. I tried this on photo #3 (it consisted of exactly one keystroke) and it was amazing how much it was improved. The photo was changed from being washed out to being fantastic. Be sure to do this. These are once-in-a-lifetime photos and you owe it to yourself to make them the best that you can. By the way, after the photo was edited, it looks to me like the visibility wasn't that bad.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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