Many people don't realize that a Whale Shark is not a whale. Pretty easy to get that wrong as it's after all called a Whale Shark - just to confuse us right! It's actually a shark and it's officially the biggest shark in the world. Luckily for us though it's completely harmless to humans and the name Whale Shark comes because, like whales, these amazing fish feed on plankton - just like a whale. I guess also their size gets factored in to the name - after all it's a fish as big as a dam whale.
Every diver's holy grail is to see a Whale Shark while diving. I was one of the lucky few to see one of these huge creatures very early in my diving career, in fact so early it's almost unbelievable. I dived with a Whale Shark on my 2nd open water training dive in South Africa in 1998. The ironic thing is at the time I had no idea how lucky I was. I did around 2000 dives before I had the chance of seeing another one.
It was during my engagement by the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism that is was afforded the chance to visit Cendarwasih Bay in West Papua. The video below is a small edit from the footage I collected there over three days of filming. Many fishing grounds in Indonesia and particularly West Papau use a floating base that is used as a place for the fishermen to live between excursions to deeper water. These giant bamboo floating structure are called Bagans. Often they store fish live below them in giant net pens.
The bagans of Cendarwasih Bay are well know for the resident Whale Sharks that live below them. In recent times it has become a bit of a tourist attraction although the remoteness of this area makes it very arduous and expensive to reach. I took three flights and a 6 hour speed boat journey to get there. Once there the facilities were very basic and we were essentially camping on a small bay that was reasonably near some of the bagans.
I spent 3 days there filming and although the water was not crystal clear the footage I got was mind bending. Not only was there multiple Whale Sharks around me every minute I was in the water but they would surface next to the bagan and suck offerings from the fishermen aboard into their giant mouths, all this literally a couple of metres from me in the water.
It was possibly the greatest filming experience I have ever had underwater. It was several years ago but the experience is burned firmly on my mind and I can still see the giant mouth of this amazing fish rushing towards my camera. Just look at this crazy shot....
I have made several edits with the footage I collected form that 3 days but the cut below was part of a series pilot that I created called Endangered Species. The statistics and facts presented in the video were all true at the time of its creation and I fear they may be even worse now. I hope you like the video and it was a great honour for me to be able to meet the fishermen who live with the Whale Sharks in one of the most remote regions of Indonesia.