Whale of a time

From an article by Jimmy O'Leary on News of the World:

SO there I was in the depths of the Caribbean Sea with the world's biggest shark heading straight for me.

Frozen with fear, the only sound I could hear was my heart beating along to John Williams' Jaws theme.

Dum, dum . . .

There was no escaping the 36ft beast, its giant mouth wide open ready to gobble up anything in its path.

Dum, dum . . .

But there was no girlie scream or calls for a bigger boat.

Because the mammoth creature was in fact a whale shark, which only eats algae, plankton and other tiny sea creatures - a kind of veggie monster.

One of nature's most spectacular wonders, it was oblivious to little me swimming alongside it.

Only moments earlier I had been sitting on the side of a boat off the Mexican coast with our guide Eva, who had asked: "Who wants to go first?"

While the other divers looked down at their flippers and adjusted their masks, I watched in horror as my hand shot up. I've no idea why - the pounding Mexican sun must have got to me.

We were floating on beautiful blue waters an hour's boat ride from Isla Mujeres (Island Of Women).

This is a Mexican hidden jewel and one of the greatest places on earth to see the migration of turtles, dolphins, manta rays and blue marlin.

Oh, and let's not forget the whale shark, which by now was sliding off into the distance.