Swimming with whale sharks in St Helena

Whale sharks are the giants of the fish world, measuring up to 41ft long © EMD  

Diving in St Helena is extraordinary on many counts – not least the remote location and clear, unpolluted waters. Visibility regularly tops out at around 60ft (20m) and not far offshore, the rocks plunge almost straight down into the abyss, so that only 15m or so from the coast you’ll be diving in water that’s up to 3,280ft (1,000m) deep. There is no shortage of marine life to be seen in these waters (pages 45–6), including butterflyfish, parrotfish, scorpionfish, puffers and morays, several of them not seen anywhere else in the world. The creature everyone wants to see, though, is the whale shark.  In season, roughly between January and early March (though the best time to see them is in January), most boat trips offer the opportunity to swim with whale sharks – so even if you’re on a fishing trip, do take your swimming things (including a mask and snorkel), just in case.