Wonderful Whale Sharks of West Papua

Hi there,

Please find attached below a link to my latest video on the Whale Sharks of West Papua.

Cheers

Matti

I shot this video about a year ago:

http://www.peterwalker.com/cenderawasih.html

Interesting to see that at least one of the whale sharks (the larger female with the bottom part of her tail missing) is still hanging around.

Regards

Peter

Cool video Peter, it was interesting to see the female there as all the reports I have seen said that it was a male population. I missed seeing the one larger Whale Shark which was up to 10m in length so it seems that there might be also an adult (or young adult) population there. Either way a great experience to swim with them. I hope it stays that way.

Matti

Hi Matti,

Take a look at this video that I shot last month in the South China Sea, NE of Singapore.

http://www.peterwalker.com/sevenskies.html

Watch the last section, about 4 minutes in, when the whale shark comes up vertically beneath the dive boat's platform. Does it not look just like the feeding behaviour in West Papua? I wonder if she has not been taking handouts from fishermen at some point in her life. If it is from this conditioned behaviour, I worry that some whale sharks will get injured or captured as a result of the whale shark feeding. Still, as I said in my Gentlle Giants video, fishermen feeding whale sharks is better than fishermen hunting them...

Regards

Peter

Hi Peter,

Does look similar in action. So who knows? Potentially from Cenderawashi or could even be curious or just following a plankton stream? All we can hope for that these sharks are protected along with other shark species before it's to late.

Matti