A whale of an encounter
WHEN Debbie and Kevin Smith took their boat out to go fishing in the Whitsundays yesterday, the last thing they were expecting to have was an intimate encounter with a whale shark.
"When I first saw it, I just saw a patch of brown stuff which I thought was weed but then it was going against the current and coming towards us and not going away," Debbie said.
"It was then that I realised what it was and I said to my husband 'oh my gosh, it's a whale shark!' and he was like 'are you sure?'"
The local couple were fishing between Double Cone Island and Grimston Point when they spotted the friendly creature and whipped out their phone and underwater camera to film the experience.
Posting it to their Facebook page for friends and family to see, the video attracted widespread attention with more than 11,000 views in a day.
"It's incredible how mad it's gone," Debbie said.
"I'm really humbled by the whole experience."
Ms Smith said having lived in the Whitsundays for five years now, she was always on the lookout for marine life when out on her boat.
"(And yesterday) was that day!" she said.
