In La Paz, whale sharks gave me my Jacques Cousteau moment

Gazing contemplatively from Calypso’s bow, sporting a red wool cap and clenching a pipe between his teeth, Jacques Cousteau seduced me with promises of action and adventure

As a child of the 1970s who loved science and nature, I was captivated by the legendary ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau.bow, sporting a red wool cap and clenching a pipe between his teeth, the philosopher-scientist seduced me with promises of action and adventure, of wonder and beauty. On TV and in magazines, I saw lizards plunge into the oceans around the Galápagos Islands, then swim underwater in search of algae. I read about divers who crept up on sleeping sharks in the Gulf of Mexico.

The captain throttled back his engines, signalling our arrival at the feeding spot. Twelve of us nervously fumbled with our wetsuit zippers as Raul, our jovial, generously proportioned guide, handed out snorkelling gear. Raul spotted an eight-metre-long juvenile male, tumbled backward off the gunwale and swam to the big fish with the effortlessness of a sea lion. Then, as he tracked the shark, he thrust one arm up – flaglike – so we could spot him in the water. He made it look easy.

Back on the boat, our foursome compared notes: none of us had succeeded in getting a good look. In miscalculating our angle of attack, we had swum farther than necessary, tiring ourselves out in the process. We wistfully gazed out at Raul – who was still frolicking with the shark – and resolved to do better.

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