Every year for every momentous moment in our lives, we check for one reservation before all others. For nearly eight years now, my husband and I have been waiting until the Georgia Aquarium’s Journey with Gentle Giants Dive opened up at just the right time so we could dive with whale sharks together. This year, on our fifth anniversary, we were able to make it happen.
I had never been to the Georgia Aquarium before this, so I was already thrilled. I’ve heard for years that it is one of the most amazing aquariums in the world from so many, I was just hoping to not be let down. Our tickets for the dive were set at 3pm, but naturally we had to be the first people in the door that morning, especially to be able to properly soak it all in. Walking into the main atrium, my jaw dropped. This aquarium was massive, with exciting things on every corner that made me want to run around like a kid in a toy store! But of course, we found our way to the Predators in the Deep exhibit first.
When we walked into this exhibit, surrounded by the blues of the water reflecting on the walls opposite, all I could look at was the beautiful hammerheads gracefully skimming the ground, the bait ball moving in sync in the middle, the sand tiger sharks lurking around the periphery, and the majestic singular tiger shark that circled overhead. Everything was blue and everything was beautiful. All I wanted was to gaze through the windows into this small wonderland all day long. As you watch these animals, you notice little things about these sharks that warmed my heart. One hammerhead had an old injury on her lateral line, another had a damaged pectoral fin, even the tiger shark had a damaged snout that likely impacted her sense of direction and electroreception. While many may look at a shark in an aquarium and wonder at the quality of life they have there, I look at the fact that as a non-profit focusing on conservation, the Georgia Aquarium is giving these animals that would not survive out in the wild anymore due to their injuries a chance to live and educate people. This exhibit was largely focused on rewriting the typical story of sharks, specifically their reputation of being blood thirsty creatures of the deep. I was able to speak with several other patrons who had a basic fear of sharks but soon found them to be beautiful and misunderstood. Starting here, where I could watch these beauties all day, I could only imagine how amazing the rest could be.
The Ocean Voyager is known as one of the largest single aquatic exhibits in the world. This tank holds 6.3 million plus gallons of water with over 50 species of marine animals housed inside. We made our way through the 100-foot tunnel and sat down in front of one of the most amazing sights in the world, a 23-foot tall, 61-foot-wide window into the soul of the tank. I can’t imagine any way that I could have walked by this tank without spending all the time I could in front of it. We sat for an hour just watching everything inside the tank. I had never seen a whale shark in person before, and truly it was such an experience to watch the largest fish in the world swim by through the waters, manta rays flipping nearly the surface of the waters, sawfish and guitarfish swirling through the waters below, and so many other fish and rays circling through the massive tank. We watched and watched, noting the different species and how they moved and interacted with each other. It was like knowing a secret, that we would be able to experience that tank from the inside in just a matter of hours. When we finally decided to move on to the rest of the tank, it was like pulling a child from the candy aisle, we never wanted to leave.
We went through the rest of the aquarium enjoying the different exhibits, especially the cold-water venture, seeing the amazing diversity of the animals housed here and seeing how well put together the exhibits were. But of course, we were most excited about what comes next. Diving.
Around 2:00 we started to get anxious, we were so excited for our dive that we got our things and waited at the experience desk for nearly 45 minutes just waiting for our dive team to get there. Once there, we got to start our backstage experience of the Ocean Voyager and begin our dive briefing. Since we had dove in an aquarium before, it was not unlike our experience at the Florida Aquarium. We discussed the possible animal encounter and made sure not to touch the animals directly, we got to know a bit of their personalities before getting into the tank and finally, we suited up for the dive!
The tank was a cool 74 degrees, and I was so excited to get in, once they gave us the go ahead, I was the first one down to the floating dock with Daniel close behind me. I suited up, waited for the go ahead and plopped right down into the waters, thrilled to be the first one in the tank. We slowly sank to the bottom of the 20-foot section, watching in awe at all the fish circling us in curiosity. As we waited on the others to follow us down, we watched as out first whale shark decided to pay us a visit. This 24-foot-long whale shark swam right above us, and then started to move its tail to be closer to us on the floor, making himself nearly vertical to enjoy the feel of our bubbles on his skin. Daniel and I were dumfounded, to the point we nearly took a tail slap to the body because of how in awe we were with even just this initial experience. The shark then circled away as we got ready to move on to cross the tunnel and move into the deeper section of the tank.
As we moved, both whale sharks began to follow us through the tank, chasing our bubbles and moving lower in the water column for us to watch them more closely. As we swam, cownose rays, sawfish, guitarfish, and even small blacktip sharks swam so close you could reach out and touch them. The animals were so friendly and curious they spent much of their time circling around us. When we made it to the 30-foot section, we were able to observe similar vertical behaviors from the whale sharks as well as swimming low to check us out. I was truly in awe the whole time, I found myself spinning to try and see every animal nearby. We waved at the people on the other side of the large acrylic window and kept circling the tank. Checking off all the amazing animals we saw, we were thrilled to spot a wobbegong swimming near the glass to show off his amazing coloration. The manta rays stayed near the top of the tank but would sometimes move downward to give us a nice view of their giant bodies.
Forty minutes flew by, and we began to head back to the dock, Daniel and I were the last ones up, and with this we got to experience something absolutely incredible. The larger whale shark followed us up to the dock and after nearly knocking Daniel with his large caudal fin, he circled back and watched us, just a small four feet or so away. Daniel and I watched him and looked into his eye as he swam by. I truly don’t know what better experience there is in the world. Looking this amazing fish in the eye was life changing. You feel so small compared to these beauties. The world was a pinpoint, and it was just us and the whale shark. It was a struggle to get us out of the water after that experience for sure. But eventually we made our way up the later trying to figure out how to reorientate ourselves to this world again. The Georgia Aquarium is absolutely the most amazing aquarium I have ever been to, if anything could make me want to live land locked it would be working here. Their mission is admirable and their focus on conservation really drives my love of everything I could see there. I absolutely cannot wait to visit again.
