Australia // Swimming with whale sharks at Ningaloo Reef

Whale Sharks

For many travellers, swimming with the whale sharks is one of the major must-do’s on their trip through Australia. And honestly, there’s no way we can disagree with that!

Despite the title “shark” these HUUUUUUGE animals (up to 12.65m/41.5ft in length) are totally harmless for human beings. The whale shark is in fact the biggest fish in the world but only uses its mega-mouth to feed on plankton and the occasional small squid or fish. No wonder they call them the “gentle giants” of the seas!

Ningaloo Reef

There are only a few places in the world where whale sharks can be found, and in fact there’s only one place where they regularly appear between April and July and that’s the gorgeous Ningaloo Reef off the coast of Western Australia.

The tiny town of Exmouth is the main jump-off point for exploring this stunning reef and there are plenty of tour operators to choose from! We opted for Ningaloo Whale Shark n Dive, which has largest purpose-built dive boat (the “Aliikai”) of all tour operators in the area and has a professional photographer on board!

Rise ‘n shine it’s whale shark time!

We were obviously SUPER thrilled to go on the tour with Ningaloo Whale Shark n Dive so when we saw their tour bus pop up around the corner to pick us up our heart just skipped a beat! About 45 minutes later we arrived at the Tantabiddi boat ramp where we all hopped in a little dinghy that took us to the “Aliikai”, a beautiful 65ft dive boat full of comfort and joy!

Snorkeling

After a short – and funny :) – introduction by Frankie, our skipper for the day, everyone tried on their snorkeling gear and had a tasty coffee made by the onboard barista. Yumm! Frankie started the engines and soon enough we were cruising through the gorgeous turquoise waters towards a good place for our morning snorkel around the breathtaking Ningaloo Reef.

The whale sharks are usually swimming outside of the Ningaloo Reef, so we wouldn’t be seeing them during our morning snorkel. Nevertheless it turned out to be an amazing adventure! As soon as we plunged in the crystal-clear turquoise water we were surrounded by thousands of fish and the most spectacular coral we’ve ever seen! We even got lucky and spotted a few stingrays, a sea turtle and a whitetip reef shark! And if you’re really lucky you might even spot a dugong munching on some seagrass!

Swimming with the gentle giants

When we got out of the water the crew had been preparing some refreshing snacks for us to get rid of the salty taste in our mouths. In the meantime our skipper Frankie started the engines again and we made our way outside of the Ningaloo Reef, into whale shark territory…

Frankie started to communicate with the spotter plane that had gone up to help us find a whale shark swimming nearby. It didn’t take too long before the pilot spotted one of these gentle giants making its way along the Ningaloo Reef, so immediately we set course towards him and started preparing our snorkeling gear. Boy, how exciting is this!?

Once the crew managed to determine which path the whale shark was following the skipper maneuvered the “Aliikai” in the right position and a first group of swimmers jumped into the water as soon as the “GO GO GO!!!” commando was shout out by one of the crew members. We were in the second group, so we sat on the back platform while the boat made a big circle to cross the whale shark’s path again.

Once we got the green light to jump into the water we all got into a straight line and waited for the whale shark to pass by. We were just a few seconds away from seeing the world’s largest fish swim, and our excitement made every second passing feel like an hour. Suddenly, a dark shape became visible in the distance and woohoooooo, there it was, making its way straight towards us!

He was probably around 8 meters (26ft) long and dark grey with white speckles all over his body. As soon as he swam right past us we all started paddling our hearts out to keep up with him. Although he was only moving his tail in a slow manner he was going pretty fast and the rough sea didn’t make it any easier on us, but what an unbelievable sight!

In the end we did a total of three swims with the whale shark and we were exhausted! These giants are really hard to keep up with but we did manage to spend lots of time with them in the water! Fortunately the awesome crew had prepared an enormous lunch buffet for us to get re-energized.

Manta rays

Back on board we didn’t have much time to share our whale shark stories with our fellow travellers because another great ocean creature was swimming around looking for some excited swim companions. It was a giant manta ray! Only seconds after jumping into the water we saw the huge fast-swimming fish swooping by right in front of us. This has to be the most elegant creature underwater!

After our manta ray adventure we cruised back into the Ningaloo Reef for the last activity of the day: an afternoon snorkel trip. Once again we were stunned by all the sea life and colorful coral around us and this sure was a great way to say goodbye to the gorgeous Ningaloo Reef!

Big shoutout to the awesome Ningaloo Whale Shark n Dive crew (Frankie, Scott, Hannah, Rachel and Janine) for making this such an unforgettable trip!

Video:

Have a look at the video about our crazy whale shark adventure :) !

Quick Tips:

The whale shark tour costs AUD 385 pp and includes transportation from/to your hotel, snorkeling gear, morning coffee, snacks and a delicious lunch buffet. More info on www.ningaloowhalesharkndive.com.au
An underwater camera might come in handy, but you can leave the hard work to the onboard professional photographer Janine and focus on swimming with the whaleshark. Janine’s photos are available on a USB stick for AUD 55.
If you don’t really like swimming you can still join the tour as an observer. We’ll be posting about this experience soon so keep an eye on our blog to find out what this entails!