Festooned in a jumble of brightly colored dive masks, snorkels and fins, 10 of us bobbed rhythmically in a determined Indian Ocean swell, awaiting our first glimpse of the world's biggest fish.
Now a few miles off the western coast of Australia, treading water near the northern boundary of the Ningaloo Marine Park preserve, our group had clamored off the stern of a 55-foot boat only moments earlier. Holding an outstretched arm high above her head, our guide pointed toward a still-unseen shark said to be headed right for us.
"This one's moving really fast, guys," she warned. "Faces in the water! Faces in the water!"
I did as I was told, clearing my snorkel first then plunging my mask into the warm ocean. A silent curtain of emerald green, striped here and there by wavering shafts of sunlight, hung empty before me, and for an instant, I figured I was looking in the wrong direction.
It wasn't long, however, before a massive shadow began to swell in front of me and the sudden, unmistakable shape of an open mouth -- one seemingly capable of swallowing a full-sized refrigerator -- emerged from the hazy green, speeding straight toward me. Scrambling in an adrenaline-fueled frenzy of pulling and kicking, I swam out of the whale shark's immediate path and managed to settle in alongside the enormous creature, a fish our guide later estimated was more than 26 feet in length.
Keeping up was a struggle, but I mustered several seconds near the shark's pectoral fin, marveling at the galaxy of white spots swirling over its head and gills. Tiring rapidly, I watched the frequency of those spots diminish as the shark distanced itself, leaving me with a thrilling look at the strength of its massive body before disappearing into the green again with a few graceful swings of its tail.
Priceless resource
The Australian Department of Environment and Conservation estimates between 300 and 500 plankton-feeding whale sharks visit the World Heritage-listed Ningaloo Marine Park annually. Most are immature males, typically showing up between March and early August, ranging in length from 13 to 40 feet and weighing as much as 11 tons.
The consistency of the sharks' seasonal appearance in the 940-square-mile preserve has helped build a growing ecotourism industry in the nearby town of Exmouth, about 800 miles north of Perth.
"This year we were running seven days a week" during whale season, said Mick Husband, owner of Three Islands Whale Shark Dive. "And it was only in the last week where we had a couple days that we didn't see a whale shark, so out of probably 120 days this season, there were only two where customers missed out."
(The company allows clients who don't see sharks to try another day at no charge.)
A staging point for travelers eager to explore some of the 160 miles of Ningaloo's protected fringing reef, or the nearly 125,000-acre Cape Range National Park running along the marine reserve's coastline, Exmouth is home to only 2,400 residents but can swell to more than 6,000 people during peak tourist season. And it kept seven different whale shark tour operators busy last year.
"Whale sharks are worth far more alive than dead," said Brad Norman, a conservation biologist and founder of the Exmouth-based research organization Ecocean; he pointed out that shark-finning, a fishing practice where sharks are harvested solely for their fins, is decimating their populations worldwide. "Appropriately managed whale shark ecotourism can be both an ecologically and economically sustainable alternative to unsustainable hunting of this species."
One of only a handful of destinations on the planet offering commercialized whale shark tours, Ningaloo features state-enforced guidelines governing interaction with the marine giants, permitting only one tour boat to operate near a shark at any time and limiting swims to no more than 10 people.
Sharks, kangaroos, emus and more
It's hard to imagine Americans traveling all the way to Exmouth without booking an all-day whale shark encounter, most of which include a morning snorkel on Ningaloo's inner reef along with a buffet lunch and the opportunity to swim several times with sharks.
For Kirk Demeter, president of the Seattle-based wholesaler Down Under Answers, the excursions are, in fact, a better seller for clients who've already been to Australia.
"They're a fantastic activity to offer on a return visit," he told me, mentioning the two-hour flight to Exmouth from Perth. "As difficult as it may be to actually get there in terms of travel time, you never have somebody go out there and experience the whale sharks that doesn't come back just raving about it."
Demeter swam with Ningaloo whale sharks in 2010 and told me it was one of his best days in Australia in more than 75 visits.
"They're such huge fish," he said. "And to see just how large they are, while being in the water so close by, really gets your heart racing."
Like me, however, Demeter did more than just snorkel with leviathans while in Exmouth. During my recent visit, I spent a day with Dave Mongan, owner of Ningaloo Safari Tours, on an excursion into Cape Range National Park, where we chased 6-foot-tall red kangaroos and several smaller emus across the Outback in a Land Rover; photographed rock wallabies on a boat tour of the reserve's cliff-lined Yardie Creek; and searched for clown fish on the near-shore reefs of Turquoise Bay.
And travelers looking for first-rate Exmouth accommodations will certainly be comfortable at the 68-room Novotel Ningaloo Resort.
"They really had a nice restaurant, a nice pool setting, and the rooms were great," Demeter said of the property. "The whole town of Exmouth, with its terrific weather and the Aboriginal history, not to mention the reef and the huge whale sharks, was such a cool place."
Commissionable to agents, Three Islands' whale shark adventures start at $385 for adults, $265 for kids under 16 and should be booked the first full day of a visit, enabling clients who don't see sharks to try again.
Visit www.whalesharkdive.com.