Largest fish, the Whale Sharks sighted off Diani

Whale Shark swimming along the Coastal waters of the Indian Ocean. [Maarufu Mohamed, Standard]

The location is Kenya's Idyllic South Coast- famed for its pristine white sandy beaches.

A group of tourists and local journalists are on a rare expedition at sea to watch largest fish in the ocean - the Whale Shark.

It has since earned the tag Kenya's Big six the biggest of them all owing to its gigantic size.

It is almost mid-day with calmer waters and very clear visibility that one is able to spot marine creatures that swim the blue waters from a distance.

Suddenly, the aerial radio suddenly comes to life on board the whale shark expedition boat off Diani Beach. “We have a whale shark''.

Volker Bassen, seasoned captain, pilot and deep sea diver who also happens to have a passion for whale sharks shouts on top of his voice “Everybody in” to some of the guys snorkelling next to the boat admiring turtles.

“We have got two sharks. I repeat we even got a third one. We got three in tow,'' the radio suddenly crackles.

As soon as everybody is in Captain Bassen guns the engines, within seconds we are cruising at 60km/hr towards the spot where the airplane discovered the sharks.

“It’s far, we’ll need about 22 minutes to where they are so get ready to jump,” Bassen shouts on top of his voice in order to overcome the roar of the twin 200Hp engines as we almost fly along the Kenyan coastline.

After about 10 minutes the radio comes to life again.

“We see you about another 5 kilometres,'' we hear the pilot saying. Bassen and his team have successfully been finding whale sharks like this for the past two decades.

“We now have six whale sharks. Two are huge at least 10 metres in length,'' Bassen says.

Soon there is a small dot in the sky, it is the spotter plane circling the area where the whale sharks are.

The boat suddenly slows down while turning. “It’s feeding straight ahead of the boat guys, I’ll position us in front of him, jump when I tell you to,” Bassen tells us in a calming voice.

 “He is coming right towards the center of the boat, about 15 meters now, can you see him?”

I turn around, suddenly a massive dorsal fin breaks the surface and I see a head as wide as a bus, the shark is coming straight towards us as we sit there in anticipation. 

“Jump!” Volker shouts.

 I hesitate, have I gone mad? Am I completely out of my mind? That thing looks like it could swallow not only me but the whole crew. It’s so big it could probably swallow the whole fricking boat if it wanted to.

I feel a hand on my shoulder gently squeezing it: “its OK buddy, don’t worry, he is just a baby, he won’t bite, try to remember that,” says Bassen while gently pushing me into the water.

What I see is hard to describe, it’s certainly the most impressive sight I’ve ever seen, no doubt about that. It will forever be burnt into my memory. I now know why people who have done it call it a wildlife experience of a lifetime.

As in a movie I see the massive shark gliding towards me with Steve Capone, underwater cameraman and whale shark researcher already swimming by its side. Something isn’t right, Capone looks like a toy figurine next to this giant, and I suddenly realize how massive this leviathan is. 

 As the whale shark slowly swims past me with Steve Capone in tow I suddenly remembered to take a breath again.

It was as being thrown back 200 million years in time when the dinosaurs roamed our planet. In fact, the whale shark roamed our oceans 200 million years before the dinosaurs, this is probably the closest Jurassic Park experience one can get.

It’s absolutely without comparison the best thing I’ve ever done.

And this marks the beginning of the now popular whale shark sighting season right on the Diani waters, Kwale County.