is the best time of year for the whale sharks in exmouth and surrounding area.

and just throw on a snorkel and jump in - I wouldn't worry about other sharks at all personally. Its awesome - best description I can give is it is like a bus coming straight at you and it veers off within a few metres absolutely effortlessly. Its an awesome experience. and usually you get some big manta rays tagging along with them.

We'll be up there in April too and might see if we can go on a charter to see some close up.

When living up there in 07 we saw a few come close to our boat. One small one (around 4m) was hanging around the boat for ages when we were out at Helby Bank. I had my goggles on and was just about to jump in when I saw some big shadows behind it - two sharks of about 2m (not sure what flavour but still enough for me not to bother). We got some good pics from the boat and it was a great experience.  

If one comes up near your private boat, do it. Surreal when your in the water with them, you'll regret it if you dont.

I use to be a bit paranoid about sharks but if you stay close by your boat with someone on lookout for piece of mind you'll be fine.

John

I head a little FURTHER NORTH each year,
Leave the cities behind, out of sight of mind,
.......

We had one in Exmouth come up to our Tinnie and nudge it ever so gently while we were anchored. It's as if it knew how much pressure to put on the boat without flipping us over. My brother had the knife ready to cut the anchor rope when I started patting it on the head and it stayed about half a metre form the tinnie for about 10 minutes. We got some great photos but I wansnt game to jump in as we had just lost some nice macks to sharks.

We were up there exactly this time last year and the first week of april and the first whale sharks had just started to come thru a week or two before us, we went out and had an awesome time. we swam with 5 of them the biggest was 9m to the smallest 4.5, i would assume if ur taking ur own boat they would be very hard to locate as the charters use spotter planes to find them. They aren't cheap tho, We paid and it was awesome but at the price i don't think we'd do it again but everyone should do it once.

Is there any one place where they would be over any other...?

Based on ppls experiences would you say they seem follow a particular depth or current line...

West, Murion area or the gulf more likely to spot one?

Yep we are taking our own tinny-Flat Chat II - if ya see us out n about - come say gday-we are mostly a friendly bunch!

We would mostly be out of Tanta's.

Donna

I think most of the whale sharks cruise the back edge of the ningaloo reef around the 20-30m dropoff or just inside it. That's where I've seen them and most of the whale shark boats seem to lurk.

Tantabiddi is a prime area.

John

I head a little FURTHER NORTH each year,
Leave the cities behind, out of sight of mind,
.......

A mate saw 2 whale sharks yesterday on the 100m line and theres been a few other sightings about the place.  Won't be long until there about in good numbers.  I've never seen one or dived with one, which will certainly change this year.  All I know is, from what I've told, make sure you do it if you get the opportunity.  Will say hello if I bump into you guys.