Things were just getting a little quieter, and the South Easterly winds were just beginning to blow when the Canadian Navy vessel Winnipeg called into Port Victoria for three days R&R in Seychelles.Louis Beaubet had been in touch with us for several days and had organised three days of diving and snorkelling activities for his crewmates and so we were keen to impress him on his first day!
And impress we did, as on the way out to Grouper Point a whale shark was spotted swimming lazily on the surface... a great way to start the day!
Everyone got to see the shark and Louis who had the camera was keen to get some photos for the Photo ID project and so was quickly into the water to meet this big spotty shark....
After a few minutes the shark tired of his new friends and went back to the business of hunting lunch in the form of plankton and so the delighted team carried on for their dive. A great dive was had by one and all and just to cap things off as they were heading back another whale shark was seen... Instructor Lillian was sure it wasn't the same one, but it didn't matter if it was, everyone was keen to get in with it anyway. And Louis had to get the photo IDs just in case it was a different shark.
One of the HMCS Winnipeg team gets an up-close and personal look at one of our 2007 returning sharksIt didn't take long for the MCSS team to hear about the sightings and soon the images were with them for analysis and sure enough there were indeed two sharks and both had been seen previously: one on the 11th and 21st of October 2006 and the other was seen only once on the 15th of October 2007; both sharks were juvenile males of around 4 metres in length.
So welcome back to our two young visitors, its nice to see you both again and
Bonne Voyage
to Louis and all the crew of HMCS Winnipeg, we hope to see you back again soon as well!
