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Hammerhead sharks and whale sharks, Galapagos

:: Monday, October 9th, 2006 @ 4:22:40 pm

:: Tags: ,


whale shark (Rhincodon typus) and divers at darwin’s arch, galapagos

I just spent a week diving the Galapagos and experienced the best whale shark and hammerhead shark encounters I’ve ever had. More later…


school of scalloped hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna lewini) darwin’s arch, galapagos


school of scalloped hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna lewini) darwin’s arch, galapagos

| Guayaquil, Ecuador | link | trackback | Oct 9, 2006 16:22:40
  • http://www.aaronlogan.com Aaron

    Oh, so that’s what a bazillion hammerhead sharks looks like.

  • http://kennyliu.com/ kennyliu

    holy shit

  • http://ihatepink.com Caroline :)

    Gorgeous.

  • Tobias

    Eric, please stop doing those fantastic trips. I’m getting very very jealous every time when I see your updates with the amazing photos (while sitting in the office). Or take me with you next time…please!?!? ;-)

    Best regards Tobias

  • Heidi

    Oh, this is just mean. Mean mean mean.

  • http://www.ilanbt.com ilanbt

    Wow what a great whale shark photo. I was in Galapagos at early July and unfortunatly Mr Big wasn’t there.

  • http://www.davidpatchen.com Dave

    OK, I’ll borrow a f—ing dry suit! Amazing. :)

  • http://echeng.com echeng

    Dave – the water at darwin was 78 degrees.

  • http://mjmoreno.smugmug.com Matt M.

    I was on the trip with Eric and can vouch for the HH activity… it was fantastic. Also, the picture you see with the whale shark was one of about 10K that were taken by everyone. This particular shark hung out with us for – I kid you not – 20 minutes. The guides said they like to rub against the pangas to scratch an itch. Eric – don’t hide your pictures of him/her going vertical… it’s a must see. Great diving with you again! Matt

  • http://www.owensoft.net owen

    where are the shark photos?

  • http://echeng.com echeng

    Hey, owen — the shark photos are right above your comment!

  • Andrew

    Looks like you had a great time!

    I was in Galapagos in 2004 and was fortunate to see scenes like the above, and I even felt the blast of the whale shark’s propulsion as it slowly moved into the murky depths.

    Were you at Darwin’s Arch to get the whale shark photos? We anchored there for five days and everday, every dive, was a whale shark experience at the Theatre, where you would try to sit on the barncale-ridden and moray-full reef (difficult to do in the massive currents). There, we would sit and pick out a whale shark doing a “drive by” from distance then follow it, to be picked up by the pangas (by then we been been carried hundreds of metres into open ocean).

    I was at Cocos in 2005, and I must say even though Cocos wins hands down in terms of sheer quantity of biomass (larger shoals of fish and in greater variety), it was lacking the “big” creature groups. Although there were lots of Silver Tips in Cocos, which I had never seen before.

    Galapagos is still the place to go a) whale sharks and b) schooling sharks. Just a little cold (warmer above the eqautor and Darwin and Wolf islands), but who cares when you’re seeing this, eh?!

  • Ridgebacklover

    Wow – same schools we saw in April – but with clear water, fabulous photos! Must not have had 7 knots current eh?

  • http://echeng.com echeng

    Actually, I find that strong currents are the only way to get close to schooling hammerheads (on open circuit). The current was so strong that it was blowing our bubbles horizontally — away from the school above me. Steve Rosenberg and I were apart from the rest of the group and were hiding behind a boulder (from the current) on the “theater” at Darwin.

    Remember that UW photos are always taken with really wide angle lenses. The animals are always much closer that you think they are. :)

  • jeff joel

    How is the water temp. and clarity at darwin and wolf in late May and early June….does anyone know??

    Thank You!

  • http://fantasiew.blogspot.com Wyl-Ellen

    .. ..if only its’ friendly (which is impossible)…. i am sure ppl would love to hug such a big fish …. unique

  • http://www.thailandinhaiku.weebly.com Ramonez

    Awesome. Thank you.

  • http://www.daniellethorne.jimdo.com Danielle Thorne

    Beautiful shot of the hammerheads. I’m a beginning diver–very green–I have a question that’s actually for novel research. First, is that shot yours, and how far were you from beneath this school? Second, how close and how safe is it to be near hammerheads. I thought they left you alone pretty much, but in a school?

    Thanks!

  • Pingback: The Drowning-Shark Syndrome « the world belongs to the brave

  • guest

    what time of year is this?

  • http://echeng.com/ Eric Cheng

    The date of the post is October, 2006.

  • guest

    i saw that, but that is actually when you took the dive? i am looking to go and do some diving. are the hammer head sharks there in these kind of numbers all year round? and are the whale sharks there all year round? thanks!

  • http://echeng.com/ Eric Cheng

    It was the week before, taken on Oct 04.

  • Sara

    Guest, asked a good question that I didn’t see the answer to. “are the hammer head sharks there in these kind of numbers all year round? and are the whale sharks there all year round?”

  • Wadagot

    Amazing

  • Scirillo3533

    They travel in groups?

  • The

    cool

  • Kirsten

    My son is totally into sharks right now. He loved your pics!

  • mae

    they are so cool

  • aaron

    i know right

  • http://www.facebook.com/louis.zavecz1 Louis Zavecz

    head to head with a hammerhead, thats accelerating. 
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