Dive Pacific 175 Dec2020 Jan 2021

My best dive experience
We had waited all week for
Leeza, the owner manager
of Triton Bay Divers Resort, to
tell us we were going to see the
incredible whale sharks.
Whale sharks are a filter-feeder
carpet shark, and the largest of
fish species. Some grow to 18m
making them by far the largest
non-mammalian vertebrate, and
the whale sharks around Papua
are the only known
non-migratory whale
sharks in the world.
Leeza announced
that tomorrow was
the big day. Someone would
wake us at 5am and we had to
be at the boat with all our gear
by 6. Nobody needed to wake
us - we were up and rearing to
go, nervously hoping that after
travelling all the way from New
Zealand to Triton Bay in West
Papua, we would get to see what
we came for.
Other guests had travelled
greater distances: a couple from
England; another from France;
one from Italy. and one from
Malta. We were three: husband,
adult daughter and myself from
Akaroa.
Expectations were high. We
excitedly made our way quickly
to get the best position on one of
the boats. I get sea sick so needed
to be out in the fresh air, but the
sea was flat calm as we made
…the whale sharks around Papua are the only known
non-migratory whale sharks in the world…
the hour long trip to where the
bagans, and hopefully, the whale
sharks were. Bagans are lift-net
vessels and whale sharks are
attracted to them as fishermen
hand out baitfish. The bagans
move around a lot in the area but
the resort boats knew exactly
where to look.
When we came up we went
from bagan to bagan to see if the
whale sharks were nearby. After
the fourth my stomach dropped
and I began feeling quite despondent.
But a fifth one was pointed
out and we headed there. And
then the excitement mounted
there were two whale sharks
there. We had nine people on
two boats with seven of them
divers. My daughter, a snorkeler,
had said she would be too scared
to get in the water with them
but she was the first to jump
in, elbowing
everyone out of
the way.
The two whale
sharks were
young males, the larger one over
six metres and the smaller about
five metres. Inquisitive creatures
they were. They came over to
inspect the boats then gracefully
circled as they sucked in as many
bait fish as they could, like large
puppies.
Whale sharks passively filter
everything in their path with
what’s called “cross- flow filtration”
– water travels nearly
parallel to their filter pad, not
40 Dive New Zealand | Dive Pacific