i was at at Darwin Arch Galapagos a few years ago and we had come off of the reef to drift into the blue to see if we could catch a whaleshark. Now for those who have yet to experience firstly Darwin Arch and secondly the size of the whalseharks in the Galapagos islands I can tell you that firstly you do not want to be having problems under water at the Arch and secondly the whalesharks are gigantic 12 -15 metres long is not out of the ordinary there.
Well the timing was spot on, no sooner had we left the reef, all we could hear was the rattle rattle rattle from one of the guides of the Deep Blue. This was the signal for whaleshark. So further out into the blue we went. ascending as we went further into the blue. We could hear the rattle noise still but could see no whaleshark. I was at about 10 metres when all of a sudden this whaleshark the size of a London bus come cruising below us. I checked my computer and then my air and I had to make a decision, I had 60 bar remaining, and my no deco time was fine. More importantly, I had 1 minute flashing on my video battery indicator. My wife was a good few metres below me with another guide who were waving for me to go back down. I signalled that I would do my safety stop and that they were now buddies. Just at this time the Aggressor divers were back rolling into the water and as soon as they see the whaleshark were all chasing after after it. It actually made me ask myself questions as to whether it is acceptable for so many divers to be chasing after this shark. I dont know if it was envy or whether it was gut feeling, but I remember the feeling to this day. Anyway the divers had all disappeared down into the depths and I was left in the blue on my own at 5 metres. I couldnt see any bubbles by now, and I was just starting to take in my DSMB string. All of a sudden the whaleshark had headed for the surface. Whether this was to avoid the entourage of divers or not I will never know. All I can remember is being at 2 metres and seeing this bus sized animal coming towards me. With a delayed reaction I hit the record button and managed to get 40 seconds of footage before my battery died. All of the other divers were below me and I had this minute or so all to myself. I said to Mrs StewSmith that I think he come up to see me as I was the only one that left him alone. I would like to think that this was the case. Mrs StewSmith surface with very little air, and when I say very little, I mean 5-10 bar. Which is not a done thing, and certainly not a done thing at the Arch. The guide was well into deco and his air was about the same as Mrs StewSmiths. I was now on the panga and trying to find a cylinder with enough air inside to help the guide out. Luckily we had a good air consumption diver with us and she still had 80 bar left. So she volunteered to go back down and help out our guide.
I, for once in my life managed to make the correct choice, and continue my ascent when I did. I spoke to Mrs StewSmith about this straight away and said that it would have been so easy to have got carried away with the situation and followed the group and the whaleshark. She said that the excitement overtook all rational thinking for her, and that when they went out of my site they were baqck down at 30 meters. What I dont know is whether I made the decision based on the fact that I had little air left or whether it was the fact that my video battery was just about to go flat. Had I had a full battery, the story could well be different. But from that day I realised that its safety before cameras.
just curious! 
