Searching for the biggest smile on the planet

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I have to mention at this point that the only reason we were travelling up the West Coast of Australia was thanks to a guy called Colin who we met on Koh Tao in Thailand. As a fellow diver he raved about the snorkeling at Shark and Coral Bay, the diving at Exmouth and on the Ningaloo Reef and of course the fact that this was one of the best places in the world to see and swim with Whale Sharks.

These animals are enormous, in fact they’re the biggest fish in the sea with specimens up to 13m long being seen at Ningaloo, where they return ‘reliably’ every year to feed. So, for a couple of months prior to arriving here we had set our sights on getting in the water and coming face to face with these harmless, filter feeding giants and their huge mouths that have earned them the reputation of having ‘the biggest smile on the planet’.

We had actually started enquiring about trips out of Coral Bay, but there were no spots available for about a week down there, so we had called ahead to Exmouth, booking ourselves in for a few days time. When we arrived in Exmouth, we still had a couple of days in hand before our Whale Shark trip and made good use of these by doing a ‘normal’ dive on the reef, some snorkeling and completing our main mission given to us by Lexa’s dad, introducing ourselves to the local shire office… all will become clear.

We did two dives on Ningaloo Reef with Exmouth Dive Centre, at the Murien Islands to be precise. At last some decent visibility, plenty of fish life, great terrain and Lexa saw her first Wobbygong shark. During daylight lots of interesting things tend to hideaway in the gloom underneath overhangs in the rock and to add to the camouflage there were thousands of tiny glass-fish (see-through things) shoaling around these areas and obscuring the view. To get a good look you had to move in close and part the sea of fish before peering into a likely spot for something a little bigger. I had done just that and come across a nice big ray and shark huddled up together and was keen to show Lexa. It took a little persuasion, but I didn’t want her to miss out, so I persevered at getting her to swim closer and moving the fish out the way. Well, we would have been there quite a while if I hadn’t given her a gentle nudge in the right direction - the fish parted and ever since she has been telling everyone how she ended up eye-balling a shark! I think she enjoyed the experience, although she did look quite shocked at the time…

On the whole the reef looked healthy, just as you would hope for a Marine Protected Area. Unfortunately, a trail of destruction was being left by one of the other divers on our trip, which was really sad to see. Fair enough, everybody clips the coral every now and then, but this guy, camera in hand was crawling over the stuff, snapping bits off and dragging his body, gauges and fins across soft and hard coral oblivious to the mess he was leaving behind. This went on for the whole dive, leaving me fuming and almost grabbing him, but instead deciding to bring it up before the next dive. And where was the dive leader during all this? You may well ask. Mentioning no names, the lady divemaster of THE main dive school in Exmouth was taking photos, not a great way to lead a dive I would suggest and we are not talking the odd snap, but hanging onto coral herself for a good minute or so while she got the right shot. Anyone watching would have thought she was just another customer. Back onboard I talked to the instructor who was doing the dive briefings, told him quiet clearly how much damage had been done and asked him to mention it before the next dive and tell people to take more care. After a 5 minutes sales pitch about the beautiful dive coming up, he casually slipped in about minding the coral…not quite what I had in mind. Needless to say exactly the same thing happened again and I felt like doing my bit for conservation and turning this guys air off, you’ll be glad to know that I resisted and hence I am still free to write this blog…! To add to the list of offences the same guy chased after a turtle, making it frantically change direction whilst he tapped on its shell and took photos.

What happened was bad practice at the best of times, but appalling in what is supposed to be a protected nature reserve on a dive guided by a highly respected company that are supposed to ensure that idiots like him aren’t let loose unsupervised. It left us with a really sour taste in our mouths and we couldn’t believe that it had happened here of all places, not a less developed dive location in the world, where the reefs weren’t protected or where standards are ‘less stringent’ shall we say. The fact that we were in an Australian marine park, with the top local dive operator showing no concern at such blatant vandalism was amazing. To feel like something positive would come of our frustration we paid a visit to the local CALM office (Conservation and Land Management) to explain what had happened. They were as shocked as us, particularly when we told them which company it was. To ensure it was logged as more than hear-say we provided a written report of what had happened, which they could approach the company with. That was the last of our involvement, I seriously hope that it was taken further and that the company had to explain their lack of control and apparent interest in the health of the reef which after all is ultimately their livelihood. You will always get idiots, but that is exactly why they should be pulled up by the guys that have been given a licence to dive these delicate reefs due to their apparent professionalism..

OK onto lighter things. For those of you that don’t know Lexa’s father is the town clerk of Exmouth in Devon and was keen to forge some links with his counterpart in Ozzie. To this end we were instructed to head to the Town Hall or Shire Offices as they call them here and build some bridges. We did our best, trying not to look too embarrassed, but unfortunately the main-man was out of town and attempts came to a bit of a grinding halt. We did however manage to get their contact details, so maybe John will still be able to wangle a free trip to Oz, throw another shrimp or two on the barbie and get to drink some of the amber nectar.

Exmouth sits over on the north eastern side of the Cape Range Peninsula. Driving around the top and down the west coast takes you into the Cape Range National park, some great campsites and some superb snorkeling spots. This is where we ended up on our second free day before the momentous whale shark trip. We checked out the park’s visitor centre, complete with roo and joey that had taken up residence out of the sun and then headed for the beaches. Two of our main stops were Turquoise bay and Oyster stacks, both drift snorkels where you jump in and get carried along by the current parallel to the beach and then get out and walk back for another go. These were great, loads of coral and fish life and the water wasn’t too cold either. After a hard day following fish we headed back out of the park, ready for the big trip tomorrow. Just time for one more stop, Mangrove Bay as the sun set and the roo’s started to appear…hundreds of them everywhere!! As we watched the sun sink, we saw the fins of juvenile black tip reef sharks swimming in the shallows and a couple of small shovel-nosed rays as well…cool. After that we crawled out of the park at about 20kph, with roo’s hopping everywhere!

And so to the big day - up early for the pick-up and drive to the boat. It was a beautiful day, crystal clear sky and glass smooth - the chances of spotting a shark should be great. The crew were fantastic and there was a really relaxed atmosphere on board. By the way, whale shark spotting involves two fixed wing aircraft that spend most of the day cruising around looking for the fish and then guide the 6 or 7 boats onto the shark for the actual swim. To kill the time whilst waiting for the first sighting we did a couple of great snorkels and were educated about swimming with whale shark etiquette. Basically only 10 people are allowed in the water with a shark and they must be 4 meters away at least etc. etc. A spotter is in the water with you who swims along with his/her hand in the air when they have a visual on the shark and make sure nobody interferes with it. All in all it is a highly controlled situation. Without dragging this out and making you suffer the same ups and downs as we did, there were basically only two sightings of whale sharks all day, but we were not at the front of the queue of boats and the animals dived before it was our turn. So we had the excitement of finding one, getting kitted up and ready to jump only for it to be snatched away…cruel. It wasn’t a complete loss, we saw loads of turtles hoooning away from the boat as we cruised around, a beautiful group of manta rays swam right beneath the boat and a pod of Orca (Killer Whales) were sighted a few hundred meters from the boat - so not a bad day really, oh and the food was great! We can’t say that they didn’t try as we headed back in after about 7 hours out on the water searching. I should say at this point that we had paid $300 each for this experience (pricey because of the planes) which considering we tend to do free activities was a huge expense to us. Nevermind, as part of the deal we would get a chance to go out for a second time if we wanted and it was difficult to miss twice surely…

Because of the booking situation, there were no spare places for a few days and our ability to be flexible with our plans came in very handy as we found ourselves heading for the Cape Range National Park again for a couple of days camping. The campsites there are basically patches of flat sand by the beach with a compost toilet, quiet and simple with awesome views, just how we like it. We stayed at Pilgramuna and had virtually the entire run of the beautiful beach and some of the most amazing snorkeling we have ever enjoyed. In fact it was better than a lot of dives we have done, big brown rays just off the beach, sharks, dolphins swimming past and loads of big fish around massive rock bommies is crystal clear water. At night we saw baby reef sharks swimming close to shore again and a big shovel-nosed ray cruising the shallows. After 2 days we returned to Exmouth exhausted from snorkeling, but really glad that a failed whale shark trip had meant that we ended up camping in the National Park and seeing so much great stuff.

And so there we were again on the boat cruising out to beyond the barrier reef, with lots
The upside down aerial refers to the US communications base that started the town off
of positive thinking, but slightly less optimism than before… Another few snorkels and the weather wasn’t looking good as the wind began to rise. Nevertheless a shark was spotted (typically as we were all 150m from the boat) and the sounding of the horn led to a triathalon style thrashing of swimmers as we all rushed to get back onboard. Unfortunately the same scenario replayed and we failed to get in the water before the shark dived again. The sea state was really beginning to pick up and eventually the captains of all the boats made a joint decision that it was too dangerous to get people in and out of the water. Really frustrating and all we saw was a big shoal of bream!

There is whole other blog to be written about the shark fishing industry and the countries around the world that still insist on catching excessive numbers of animals purely for they fins. But without going into that in great detail, whale sharks are hunted for their meat in some parts of the world, despite their ever decreasing numbers and for all we know that might be the reason that this seasons whale shark spotting
Would this be the only whale shark we saw
was going so badly on Ningaloo reef.

And so it was time to leave Ningaloo Reef, we had seen some great things, even if not the whale sharks that we had come to see, so Colin if you are reading this - no hard feelings !

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