Whale Sharks
Story & Photos by Pete Oxford & Reneé Bish
marine biologist by training, with a long affinity for sharks, I had seen whale sharks before, even satellite-tagged them in Galapagos, but never
did I expect to interact with so many, for so long, as I did now.
From Biak Island we set sail south into the deep recess of Cenderawasih Bay, a long-isolated ancient sea complete with its own endemic wonders. We dove along the way, in gin clear, tropical waters of 29˚C bliss. Highlights were spectacular soft corals, cuttlefish, ornate ghost pipefish and banded sea snakes. The snakes were a particular favorite as I followed them whilst hunting underwater on the seabed, tongue flicking in and out just like any other land snake. Highly venomous, they were totally non-threatening and continued foraging for fish just a few inches from me.
While writing this I’m not sure if it should be a travelogue, a piece about the incredible reef diversity and fishing pressures or, simply, a celebration of one of the planet’s largest and most spectacular animals – perhaps a sprinkling of each.
In general Papua is not a particularly safe place to travel. The crew of our vessel however knew where we could dive safely and where encounters with the natives of the region would be welcomed. The dive sites were varied, some dominated by a riot of brilliantly colored soft corals, others by large stands of cabbage corals but each with extreme levels of biodiversity. The claim-to-fame of the Coral Triangle, an area of ocean that encompasses parts of Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, The Soloman Islands, Malaysia and Timor L’este, is that it is home to a staggering 500 coral and 1000 fish species. Although huge international efforts are in place to conserve the area pressures are high. Overfishing, the use of gill nets and fish poison, coral destruction by dynamite fishing and trampling along with a host of other problems is seeing a reduction of biomass on the reefs. Indonesia is also one of the world’s largest shark-finning nations yet, it was encouraging, back in 2002 when the Indonesian government declared a large area of western Cenderawasih Bay a marine reserve. Bordered by lush tropical rainforest, draped on mist-topped limestone cliffs, the surrounding forest is also home to tree climbing kangaroos, cassowaries and egg-laying mammals. It was further encouraging, once we reached our destination, to witness the respect that the local fishermen hold for the whale sharks that we had travelled so far to see believing that the whale sharks are harbingers of good luck.
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Indonesia, the island of New Guinea, West Papua, the Coral Triangle, whale sharks, and a beautiful wooden live-aboard dive boat – the Damai – all came together to realize one of my dreams.
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