Destin diver swims with two underwater giants

DESTIN, FL — Mike Christy has shared underwater swims with all sorts of creatures, but Saturday the diver playfully scratched the skin of one that was more than three times his size.

Christy is one of the captains of the diving vessel “Sea Cobra,” with ScubaTech. Christy was diving with a group on Saturday afternoon on the Air Force barge just outside of Destin’s East Pass. As the dive group was reboarding the boat, someone noticed there was a whale shark underneath them.

Christy snapped a few photos and swam with the plankton-eating sea creature for about 10 minutes before the group took off for their second location, the main stack of the bridge rubble.

“We were at the end of the dive, coming up the anchor line and here comes the little one,” Christy said.

The “little one” was about 15-17 feet long.

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Christy began taking photos and swimming with the whale shark. Only one other diver ventured close to the massive fish, the rest stayed on the anchor line and watched from above.

About halfway through the encounter with the “little one,” a second, larger whale shark appeared. It was about 22-25 feet long.

“It was like they were enjoying the company,” Christy said. “They certainly seemed to enjoy the interaction. They’re very docile creatures.”

Although this isn’t the first time Christy has seen a whale shark on a dive trip, he said sightings are pretty rare and brief. Usually the shark is feeding and moves away rapidly. This time, though, Christy said the sharks seemed as if they were enjoying the company.

With animals like manta rays, sea life attaches to their skin and divers may see them react positively when they scratch the creature. That was the case with the smaller whale shark.

“It’s eyes closed and it stopped swimming and just hung there like it was enjoying the scratch,” Christy recalled.

But he didn’t stop there. The brave diver even made contact with the larger of the fish.

“I wanted to get some up close pictures,” Christy said. “I wrapped my finger along the caudal fin.”

The larger shark had propeller cuts forward of the dorsal fins.

“It’s just an incredible feeling,” Christy said. “It’s hard to explain. Unless you’re a diver or a snorkeler, I don’t think you can grasp it.”

The divers encountered the whale sharks for about 50 minutes, total. Christy said he felt that many of the divers who didn’t break from the anchor line and join him for the swim might have been intimidated by the sharks’ size. He said that happens with divers who are new or are only able to dive once or twice a year.

But Christy boasts 30 years of diving experience and currently has the opportunity to plunge below the surface about five times a week. He said he’s seen all sorts of underwater life. The extended visit with the whale sharks was different, though. Christy had time to snap off 50 to 60 photos.

“You just wonder what is going though that animal’s mind,” Christy said. “When you are looking at it and it is looking at you. It was definitely a National Geographic moment.”