Whale Sharks

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 29 2007 | By: admin

Seeing as the weather is not particularly whale shark friendly (to say the least!! - today many boats did not go out at all it was so rough), I have spent most of this morning planning our Inter-school Art Competition. We have involved several local schools and are in the process of collecting their pictures/paintings of whale sharks in time for an exhibition in November at Leisure Lodge Resort on Diani beach. The aim is to get as many school children as possible talking and learning about whale sharks. Whenever we go to schools and give our presentations we are always so warmed, encouraged and impressed by the range of intelligent questions the kids ask. Without fail, they are always interested and curious. I love the questions some of the smaller ones ask, like “Why do whale sharks have those wings on the side?” and the child stuck her little arms out imitating the whale shark’s fins. I launched into an explanation about aerodynamics and watched her eyes widen. Thankfully, Volker took over at that point.

The art competition is something that the children can take part in, knowing they are helping with the conservation effort. We will invite the children to come along to the exhibition with their parents and as it will run for a week we can divide all the schools up in to manageable groups. They will be able to talk to the visitors and tourists who will hopefully buy their paintings as well as learn about the project. We hope that the buyer of the painting will take an active interest in the little artist who has no doubt put a great deal of time and effort into their whale shark masterpiece!

Leisure Lodge Resort has been one of our staunch supporters and the management are making the planning of the exhibition relatively easy! I still have to get all the pictures mounted and arranged on the exhibition boards and we will do posters a bit nearer the event. I have a volunteer helping me with this.

We are fortunate here in Diani to have a wide range of schools that we can get involved in the project, ranging from small local schools to the bigger, more international schools. We like the idea of all these different children from different backgrounds mixing and getting know each other in the spirit of whale shark conservation.