With only 700 PSI left in my scuba tank, and a brisk current to swim against, I almost declined my divemaster's request to swim through a narrow rock canyon at Faro dive site off the coast of Isla Canales de Afuera. I'm glad I didn't.

Enticed by the possibility of photographing just one more fish before my return home to chilly Cleveland, Ohio, I began kicking against the stiff current and set my lens angle wide in case there was some action in the distant blue water at the end of the 12 meter swim-through.

Suddenly, my view of the open ocean was blocked by a moving pattern of spots. I knew of only one animal that could entirely eclipse my view of the sea at the exit to this canyon. I'd spotted my first Whale Shark (Rhincodon typus)!

I ascended as quickly as I dared, my tissues saturated with nitrogen from a long day of repeated dives. To my amazement, the passing shark had doubled back and began to swim right at me as I neared the open water above the walls of rock! What a shot!

(continued...)

Coiba National Park, Panama A UNESCO World Heritage Site