Video - whale sharks at Grayton Beach, Florida

[dauphin island girl]

totally amazing, fantastic job of filming. god bless to all envolved!

Five Whale Sharks appeared just offshore from Grayton Beach, Florida in the first week of August in 2009. They remained in the local waters for two days. Many of the people chartering Grayton Beach fishing boats and one group of divers photographed and swam with the whales during the two-day event. A Whale Shark is not a whale (mammal) but is a gentle, non-dangerous, filter-feeding shark that is the largest living fish species.

James Griffith, a local firefighter/diver in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida captured the beautiful underwater video. The large school of bigger fish swimming with the whale shark are cobia.

Thanks to Edmond Alexander and James Griffith.

YouTube - Whale Sharks of Grayton Beach

 

[Bluznbeach]

Apparently this is part of a pattern, which the scientists haven't figured out. This article mentions the Grayton visitors toward the end.

Whale shark sightings baffle scientists*| ajc.com



P.S: Kurt and everybody else who contributed to the video, thanks again!!!!!

 

[Gidget]

Amazing - thank you for sharing that!

G

 

[scooterbug44]

Very cool!

 

[Kurt]

Capt. Larry talks about it on his blog - http://www.sowal.com/bb/blogs/captain-larry/576-sails-whales-mahi-tales.html

 

[Kurt]

Hopefully our whale sharks moved out of the spill area.

Whale Sharks Killed, Displaced Due to Gulf Oil?

"This summer unusually high numbers and species of sharks were here on the West Florida Shelf, and that includes whale sharks in much larger numbers than we are accustomed to seeing," Hueter said.
Those animals may have headed east to escape the oil, though no one can say for sure.
The team tagged several fish to track their future movements in oiled waters and see whether the disaster causes lifestyle changes in the whales.

 

[Lynnie]

I really hope and believe they migrated.

 

[walk the walk]

I really hope and believe they migrated.

Whale sharks!?!? Look at all of those cobia!!! I would have been slinging jigs like Clint Eastwood shooting the bad guys in the "Unforgivin."

I know James,a great guy,we used to work together for several years.Nice footage though,saw it on fishing forums a while back.

 

[Kurt]

I hope they come back some day.

 

[Franny]

I hope they come back some day.

Someone mentioned to me that a basking shark, as seen in PCB recently, and a whale shark are one in the same.