Another friend of ours (1/2 of the couple that introduced my to MBH in the first place) will be swimming that day, too.  I have known her for 36 years, and I know it will be fun for both of us, (Her husband loves to rib us about a date we had to Six Flags Over Georgia over 35 years ago.  If I remember correctly, and I do, I totally forgot about the date and she called and woke me up.  We did go, but - A lesson to other guys - NEVER DO THAT!  She might end up hooking you up with the woman who becomes your wife.)  (Boy!  Am I glad I didn't write was I was thinking!)

Anyway, the big tank at The GA has lots of different kinds of fish, including four whale sharks, many cow-nosed rays, a manta ray (it's GORGEOUS), bow-mouthed guitar fish, lots of grunts of different kinds, a couple of woebegones (weird looking!), lots and lots of potato and large grouper, a large school of bat fish, and, one of MBH's and my favorites, hump-headed wrasse!  The tank is 6.3 million gallons big (the largest in the world), has a 60' 2" wide window at one end made of 24"-thick acrylic panels (the second widest in the world - that's a fun story in itself), and you enter it through an acrylic tunnel that is UNDER THE TANK!  You look up at all the fish passing by while riding on a slow-moving conveyor belt.

The professional divers at GA supervise the swim, and the party is limited to six customers at a time.  An underwater photographer goes with us to document the water party, so I will have plenty of pics.

Oh, yeah.  For those of you who don't know, whale sharks are the largest fish in the ocean.  The four we have are juveniles, ranging from about 17' to 22' long.  They can grow to be 40'+, and can live for 70 years or so.  Whale sharks have many (MANY) teeth, about 300 rows of them, but their gullets are about the size of a quarter.  They feed on phytoplankton, algae, plankton, krill, and small nektonic life, such as small squid or vertebrates.  In other words, the largest fish in the ocean eat the smallest animals and plants in the ocean.  Wild, huh??

In addition, all the animals and fish at GA are well fed.  Fish, including most sharks, are opportunity eaters.  They will eat the easiest food they come across.  If it is fresh and already dead, the better.  That way they don't have to expend much energy to eat, as they would if the food could attempt to escape (e.g., me).  Sharks typically will not bother a human unless they are very hungry or scared. At GA, we feed them chum consisting of sushi quality fish of the same variety they would eat in the wild.

Whale sharks, by the way, are very gentle creatures.  They actually have been known to roll over on their backs in the ocean to allow people to scrape off barnacles and such from their bellies.

So don't worry.  I won't be eaten either in whole or in part while on this adventure (and neither will Robyn).  I will be back at some point afterwards to post the photos and many more of my inane musings.