The Stories of My Best Shots #17, Thresher Shark!

Since 2009 I have been putting my pictures on Flickr. A nice photo sharing site! I have met other nature photographers, learned heaps, and had many of the organisms I photographed but was not familiar with IDed. Flickr also has an algorithm which determines the ‘most interesting pictures’ in my photostream: it’s based on views, comments and favorites. So, this is a countdown to the most interesting photograph, according to Flickr, which I ever took.

Today’s image is #17, and it’s a shot of a thresher shark. A large, rare deep water shark. Totally incredibly amazing to see such an animal. Absolutely breathtaking, completely unreal. I am not exaggerating. Last year, during the first Evolution Photoganza in Malapacua, Philippines, did I not only have the privilege of seeing this animal, but it came so close to me that when photographing it, I couldn’t even fit all of it into a frame with my wide-angle lens. The photograph made it onto the cover of the ASEAN Biodiversity Magazine – my first magazine cover. Sweet!

Seeing these animals is really the special treat when diving in Malapascua. These deep water fish come to diveable depths (~ 20 m) to get parasites removed by symbiotic wrasses on the nearby Monad Shoal, one of the few places world-wide with thresher spottings.