Yomitan Whale Sharks - Okinawa Japan

After Eric Cheng had mentioned about his trip to Churumai Aquarium in Okinawa and its Whale Shark exhibit I decided to take the short trip to the in-ocean Whale Sharks at Yomitan to see for myself how it all looked. The Yomitan Fishermans Group in Okinawa has for many years been netting whale sharks and housing them in a semi-mobile near-shore net enclosure for tourist divers, mainland Japanese mostly, to visit. My guide for this trip was a fellow Japanese diver named Takeshi who principally dives caves and wrecks but for this day accompanied me to the pen.

Apparently not so many years ago the Yomitan Fishermans Group (YFG) would trap the whale sharks and then let them fend for themselves until they died. It was easy enough to get more from the nutrient rich waters in the Sea of Japan when replacements were needed. Through the efforts of Dive Shop owners like Takeshi it has only been recently that pressure was exerted through the Okinawan government to in some small manner take care of the Whale Sharks health through feeding and maintenance. The YFG simply looked at the Whale Sharks as "large fish" no different than any Trevali or Tuna. I also found out that there is no apparent exchange program with the Churamai Aquarium to rotate the Whale Shark population at either location to aid in keeping the health and safety of the sharks.

The dive briefing began with Takeshi showing me a number of educational poster designed to bring awareness of the whale sharks. Information covered was feeding, mating, size, global distribution, where these sharks in the pen came from etc. The information was very good and certainly ecologically sound as it covered the shark destroying habits of the fishing fleets in the asian areas. The final information covered was the safety briefing of the pen itself and what to expect from the interaction with the whale shark. The actual dive time is limited to a 30 minute dive to lessen the impact to the whale shark.

During the packing of the equipment for the short boat ride I didnt bring out the camera until the last minute and was told not to film the trip. A co-diver with a video camera rig was told not too as well. The camera made it obviously.

The pen is an underwater suspension setup which seems similar to a very large circus tent setup in design only with a bottom on the sea floor. The top is 3 or 4 meters under the surface with sides held out by UW buoys under tension.

The shark is visible even from close to the surface as it passes slowly through the depths still allowed to it for swimming.

There were 9 divers total paying about $125 dollars us equivalent for the dive. I was told that until recently that only when enough divers went that the shark even ate otherwise it was to go hungry. Of the divers themselves only myself and one other diver with two children went into the pen through the meter wide door in the pen. The other 5 divers stayed suspended on the outside of the net hanging on in the surge watching from a distance. The "handler" had brought several large pillow sized bags of some sort of food that he fed to the whale shark as we all watched. The whale shark was ravenous and knew exactly what the bag contained. When the bag came out the whale shark and its entourage of fish stopped swimming around the pen and ate what they could very quickly.

The whale shark itself was a gently giant and curious enough. It visited with one little girl who had a beautiful moment of brief contact at which point I can only wonder what the two of them were thinking.

The deepest I went was 70 feet and the pen went another 20 feet or so below me where it ended just short of the sandy floor. The whale shark slowly swam in a large circle around the inner perimeter of the pen at about 50 or so. While the opportunity to take photos was very nice it did seem somewhat contrived to me to have an animal like this penned up. It is of interest to note that as of the fall of 2007 there were 3 whale sharks in the enclosure but only one when we went on our trip. I asked after the other two and was told they they were just "gone". No further explanation was offered.

There were 9 divers total paying about $125 dollars us equivalent for the dive. I was told that until recently that only when enough divers went that the shark even ate otherwise it was to go hungry. Of the divers themselves only myself and one other diver with two children went into the pen through the meter wide door in the pen. The other 5 divers stayed suspended on the outside of the net hanging on in the surge watching from a distance. The "handler" had brought several large pillow sized bags of some sort of food that he fed to the whale shark as we all watched. When the bag came out the whale shark and its entourage of fish stopped swimming around the pen and ate what they could very quickly.

 

Thanks for sharing, but I think I'd have a serious issue about participating in such a dive. That poor whale shark looks more anorexic than Nicole Richie pre pregnancy... Even if my diving $'s meant food for the poor creature, euthanasia would probably better...

The condition of the poor creature is very sad indeed. It is obviously on the brink of starvation. The fact that the other 2 whale sharks are "just gone" (read dead from starvation) is appalling. Basically they are catching juvenile whale sharks, holding them for tourists to gawk at, only feeding them when tourist pay and then letting them starve to death. This seems hardly educational...unless one is seeking a course in how to exploit and kill whale sharks. What more can I say...very sad.

I can't help myself from rereading this thread and looking at those sad photos. Look how gaunt that poor whale shark looks especially the face shots. If anyone has experienced healthy whale sharks in the wild, this is just really sad...

I hope BSAC and CMAS (their stickers and plaques displayed at that dive shop) are embarrassed to be associated with this!!

The YFA have been doing it since 96, I believe.

Islandbound, they don't show that video of the fishermen going out to catch the sharks anymore?

Can't find my old photos of the sharks I saw when i did this dive in 99. I'll have to connect to my backup backup server.

There was a video playing but to be honest I went outside and enjoyed the sunlight and warmth while it was on. The fellow with the posters only spoke to me and another guy about the biology etc of the whale sharks and talked about conservation. The mainland tourists were in another area of the marina with the actual tour people watching a video. As far as I know they did not get any conservation info or pertinent information about the whale sharks in the wild. I will try to see what they watched and get back the information. The man who spoke to us was the one who forced the Okinawan Fishing Bureau which oversees licenses etc to maintain at least a minimum of care for the whale sharks.

You must understand just how politically powerful the Fishermans Groups here are in Okinawa. They at times are akin to strongarm groups with tactics that are very aggressive in getting their way. As an example, this post December they arrived at a "resolution" where all the local dive shops here in Okinawa are supposed to pay a 500Yen fee per diver that goes through training. This fee is an assessment against Scuba Divers to use the local ocean because the Fishermans groups say the ocean is where their livelihood is made and so they control it. The fee is not to go directly to the fishermen however but according to the news is to be used to reduce the number of Crown of Thorn starfish (of course they kill Tritons trumpets here all the time...and wont stop...).

Here are some of the plaques on the wall...

ooh, an autographed Christian Riese Lassen poster

I am really shocked with these images. This is definetly not the imponent whale sharks I saw when I was in the Bay Islands. How can someone let an living being get to this situation. Shame on these people. Very very sad.