Whale of a tale
Have I got a whale of a tale to tell you, specifically a whale shark tail.
This tale starts on Wednesday, July 19th. I get a phone call from a gentlemen about taking his daughter and granddaughter scuba diving in the ocean. The whole family was here on vacation from West Virginia. A little background on this grandfather, he contacted me last July around this same time telling me his daughter and granddaughter wanted to get scuba certified while they visited. Unfortunately I was going to be on vacation during that time so I sent them to my buddy Yan over in Panama City Beach to get their certification.
Fast forward to the 19th, he calls me to see if I could arrange a couple of dives in the ocean. They got their certification in the springs and not in the ocean. He said they where a little scared and nervous because of the dark water and sharks. I talked with the daughter and calmed her fears a little along with her daughter. I said I didn’t know if I could find a boat to dive with on such late noticed so I reached out to the Big Blue dive boat in Panama City, the owner’s name is Kelly and I have been diving with him all summer. Kelly said he would look on his schedule and he had four spots available for his three-tank inshore dive. The ladies and grandad were fine with that.
We met at Bristol Harbor Marina in Panama City at 7 a.m. central time. I got there around 6 a.m. and unloaded my jeep to get loaded on the boat when Kelly got there. Kelly and his wife and daughter arrived and we loaded the boat with my tanks and gear. I always get to the boat early so I can secure the port side at the stern of the boat because its easier for me to exit the boat to the water because of my stump left foot.
Now the tale begins. Our first dive was going to be at the Dan safety barge but there were fishermen already anchored there so we went about a 100 yards to the east and anchored at the Navy safety barge. We ended up with a full boat of 12 divers but me and the two ladies where in the water. The granddaughter wasn’t feeling to good so her mom and I jumped in the water and slowly descended down the anchor chain to the wreck. The mom was a little nervous but I grabbed her hand and she calmed down and I took her around the wreck and showed her a few starfish that have been growing there and moving around.
We then ascended the anchor chain and made our 3 minute safety stop, she went up ahead of me and then I followed her to the swim line. She had already exited the water but I hung back to see if there where any big fish swimming around and then I saw it, I looked at it head-on and her head was as wide as my jeep. I quickly got on the boat and they saw her, it was about a 30-foot long whale shark. Everyone on the boat put their masks on and jumped in the water to get a better look at her. Kelly had his GoPro and he took some great pictures and videos of her. She swam under us about 5-8 feet deep for about 15 minutes and then she disappeared as quick as she got there. This was my once-in-a-lifetime dive that may never happen again in our Gulf. You just never know what you might see when you go diving so keep making bubbles.
– Russell Miller, NAUI instructor #59999