The catamaran La Creole has limped back to Mahe for repairs after a collision with a whale shark slightly damaged the vessel's fibreglass body during an incident that occurred on Sunday February 16 near Praslin.

According to Travel Services Seychelles (TSS) who operates La Creole, the vessel was replacing the larger Cat Cocos, also operated by TSS and which had gone for routine maintenance, when the smaller boat ran over the fish.

La Creole was itself temporarily taken out of service after the accident which saw the fish rip a four-inch diameter hole in the smaller vessel's bottom and there has therefore been no boat service to Praslin for one week.

However, Cat Cocos, now fully serviced, resumed its usual ferry service to and from Praslin Monday (February 24) afternoon.

"We were travelling quite fast and were due to arrive on Praslin in 15 minutes when the coxswain noticed three whale sharks in our course. He swerved and successfully avoided them but apparently there was another one of the fish below the water surface where he passed," Mr Hugh Hoareau of TSS marine services told Nation yesterday.

"We felt a heave then saw the boat stop," one of the passengers said, but others on board, including Mr Hoareau, said it felt "as if we had beached."

"There was blood in the water behind us, then we saw the partly submerged fish swim away," he said, adding that although such incidents were rare, sighting of such fish was common in Seychelles waters around this time of year.

There were 20 passengers on board the vessel when the incident occurred and none of them sustained injuries according to Mr Hoareau.

"They used pumps to remove water from the catamaran for it to reach here," a technician at the boatyard in Providence where the vessel was awaiting repairs said yesterday, adding that temporary mending with fibreglass had been carried out on the vessel.

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