Team 3 Earthwatch Woodside TeachLive Day 7

Well today wraps up a pretty spectacular time here in Exmouth for all involved, including me! The last two weeks here have seen some amazing creatures (and people) and plenty of balmy sunshine to soak up before heading home to the "real" winter of the south-east coast.

Today was our final snorkel together as a team, back at Lakeside, which is the best spot I've seen while I've been here. Even better than last week, there were plenty of sting rays, black tip reef sharks and finally I got to see a green turtle which is all I wanted to see before I left! He was a cruisey turtle swimming through the shallows at the back of the reef area who didn't seem to mind that I tagged behind for a while. There were cod, there were trevally, there were snub-nosed dart fish which were pretty spectacular and the usual small reef fish busy in the currents and busy protecting their little patches of delight. The current was a bit stronger today so it was interesting if you paused for a second to adjust your goggles, you'd look down to return to what you were looking at and find an entirely different system! Hang on a second! Where am I???? You had drifted well beyond where you thought you were, but it just created a new paradise to explore. So much to see, so little time. I would highly recommend a snorkel at this site any day. I'm glad I got to see it twice.

The team have done a superb job of sighting whale sharks all week, and entertaining each other during the nights. Tonight is our last night together before we all go our seperate ways, but I am certain it's been a fabulous time had by all and an amazing week or two of marine discoveries. There have been mermaids around the place.....hmmmmmm......

Lighthouse for sunset again tonight before we go which puts the icing on the cake really.

Cheerio to Exmouth.

Caroline

Team 3 Earthwatch Woodside TeachLive Day 6

Go Team 2 !! Today was the most awesome day in the history of Earthwatch Teachlive whale shark swimming ( according to Julie). The day started off with a very deep but interesting snorkel in a great spot called Central Station where many manta rays and sharks come to get cleaned by other fish. In the same vicinity there were many other turtles and sharks which certainly gave the folks scuba diving a thrill. Back on the boat, after consuming a healthy morning tea, we were treated to a smorgasboard of minky whales and humpback whales which kept us well entertained on our way to the main event of the day – the whale shark swims!!

We weren’t disappointed. The water clarity outside the reef was the best all year
(according to the spotters) and the whale sharks came to the party!!!

Our first drop was on a long time visitor – No Back Jack who was a delight to swim with and allowed us a very long and relaxed swim. The next sharks came in quick succession with 2 more sharks in a very short space of time allowing us time with them in the water. But the best of all was our final shark which we swam with in 12m of water over coral for such a long time. He was a slower swimmer and his time spent with us was amazing, wonderful, beyond words – he was an incredible last swim to end a fantastic day and our week spent in Exmouth, which we will never forget!

Julie

Team 3 Earthwatch Woodside TeachLive Day 5

It was WOW for most days of the past week but today left them behind for whale sharks. While we saw about five today but ended up with about 6 dives. So we had a good look at each shark.

The weather was very kind with a rolling sea and small chop that lowly dropped away. The boat we were on was new this season to Ningaloo but were a good crew to be with. Each boat has been different but all were good. Young crews are all out there and full of energy while today’s was less laid back and more formal and demanding that you did everything their way.

Visibility was very good at about 15 metres, which meant there was not a lot of plankton in the water column, but still the sharks were there and one was not fully feeding but was opening its mouth for food. Many of today’s critters were going up and down like roller coasters.

Mike

Team 3 Earthwatch Woodside TeachLive Day 4

Heading out this morning, the sky was grey but the breeze was warm. Hoping the rain on the northern skies would stay where it was we headed out for a morning snorkel on a deeper dive than Sunday, here there were many more fish of all sizes and colour feeding on coral, jellyfish and more. Then coming from a distance crept a white tip reef shark who wasn’t impressed by our presence and soon left the rest of the reef in peace.
We jumped back on the boat ready for the whale sharks, but the cloudy skies made it hard for the spotter planes to find where they were hanging out today. Not long after we had our first sighting and jumped in for a brief encounter before the shark dived. Surrounded by a possie of sucker fish and baby trevally and whale shark disappeared into the depths.
However the swims came again and again with 3 different whale sharks all cruising just below the surface making visibility great watching with a more experienced eye the small identifications of each shark could be seen, a research tag, a nick in the fin and brightness of spots on one and the distinctive pattern on another. We had so many swims lunch was postponed and although in need of food the swimmers jumped in for one last swim with the whale sharks all hastily trying to keep up. They day ended with the sun appearing a great lunch. The experience just gets better the more you swim! Have some great photos to prove it too! Tomorrow we will process the photos and see what sharks we sighted today.

Louise

Team 3 Earthwatch Woodside TeachLive Day 3

Thankyou Caroline for finding this blog so I can describe what a fantastic day we had at Ningaloo Reef, with its wealth of species and incredibly large biomass. We started the day on the reef with a make-sure-you-don't-sink snorkel, meet a few turtles and 3 Tawny Grey Nurse Shark, one who was not pleased with us. Then once the staff were happy we could swim it was off to meet our first Whale Shark, sighted just after our talk on what to do when in the water with the Whale shark. Team one in, team two get ready, check camera, camera failed then shark dived, swim aborted. Next shark team 2 first in, camera worked, go go go!! Shark was great, big majestic and nonchalent. Thanks for the experience.

Another shark is sighted, so is an Ocean Going Manta Ray, so we detour, meet up have a swim and a chat, then off on another detour this time to a 1000 member pod of spinner dolphins. These were great. These mammals were going crazy, jumping, racing the boat and doing their name thing and a couple of crew decided to come back as spinner dolphins.

Next another Whale shark who was just great he thought of our boat as home, under the boat, around the boat, then all over again, followed the swimmers almost onto the marlin board. Obviously this shark had not read the 3 meter rule.

End of the day a quiet snorkel for those who had the energy. Did I mention the great food, the informative staff, the great company and the ambience of the water and coastline. Looking forward to another day on the water getting used to new experiences and mind expanding experiences.

Chris

Team 3 Earthwatch Woodside TeachLive Day 2

The day I nearly got eaten by a shark.

We departed south of Exmouth this morning in search of whale sharks. First we had a training dive and I’ve never seen so many fish in all my life, all colours, sizes and shapes. One of the other people in the team saw a shovel-nosed ray. We moved on waiting for the spotter plane to find the whale sharks. We waited for a while before the first whale shark was sighted but unfortunately it was a little too deep for me to see, so it was suggested that I maybe open my eyes!

So it wasn’t long until we could jump back into the water on another sighting and this time I was right in-front of the whale shark. Out of the murkiness came the whale shark face on. I was able to get some really good photos of him as he passed just to the left of me. Everybody was swimming like mad to keep up with him. We boarded the boat again and everybody was ecstatic at their first whale shark sighting and eager to get back into the water. It was estimated to be about 4-5 metres long and surrounded by small fish. We had to then wait a while for the sharks to come to the surface again. There was a frenzy of diving as several whale sharks came to the surface over a short time. It was a case of into the water, swim along with the shark and 7 other divers, out of the water and back again 4 times. The last dive turned out to be extra special as the whale shark swam away from us and all of a sudden it decided to turn back giving us the best viewing of the day. An experience I can’t really explain but has to be done.

Allan

Team 2: Counting Time Again...

It's been another busy and exciting week for the six Earthwatch volunteers. With another there days on the water and three and a half days in the lab each, the volunteers came up with the following (highly impressive) results:

Sharks seen and photographed: 24

Encounters submitted to the ECOCEAN Photo-ID Library: 112

Additional images processed to be uploaded by next week's team: 40

Hours spent swimming with sharks: 9

Kilometers traveled in the ECOCEAN signature van: 120+

Hours spent on computers: 24 (plus an additional several by each of the TeachLive volunteers as they answered their eager students' whale shark inquiries)

All in all, it was a fantastic trip from start to finish. After a cloudy and slightly uncomfortably cold first day on the water (with 5 sharks seen to help neutralize the chill factor), the expedition ended with a perfect day out at the national park, and a swim at Lakeside with sharks, turtles, rays, and a delightful array of Ningaloo corals and fish.

Thanks for all your hard work Susie, Robbie, Damon, Trent, Richie and Sean!

Until next time...

-Steve and Darcy

Team 2 Earthwatch Woodside TeachLive Day 7

Hi Whale Shark Enthusiasts,

Today is the last full day of our whale shark adventure so we have nominated it a fun day. We went as a group for a snorkel at Lakeside, a beach within the Ningaloo park reserve. The day was perfect with the sun sparkling through the water, bouncing back off the golden sand and highlighting the colors of the multitude of fish. What a multitude there was; lots of stingrays, thousands of tiny fish all painted by a clown with a crazy sense of humor, a huge cod that lived under a ledge at the bottom of the coral who put his head out to say “Hi!”, and a reef shark that came out from hiding and was too big and too close for comfort or for my liking. An octopus was exercising his limbs but curled up and submerged into the reef as I passed by; it’s not his fault he not so good looking. We swam for ages, sharing our finds with each other and generally enjoying splashing about in the beautiful clear water but two things were missing, Tommy Tortoise was definitely out of town – sad, and most of the “Jellies” had gone to annoy the whale shark swimmers out beyond the breaking waves – hurray. It was truly a magic morning.

Now we are in the lab again doing the final “dotty bit” and sharing memories of the beautiful whale sharks we have been privileged to be ‘up close and personal’ with before our final picnic watching the sun go down across the ocean from the lighthouse. I feel sure each one of us feels very privileged to have been a part of this important project.

Robbie

Team 2 Earthwatch Woodside TeachLive Day 6

Hello World, how's the serenity in your neck of the woods?
Out here on Ningaloo reef by Exmouth today it was punctuated by many thousands of jellyfish stings but more of that later.

Today we were picked up from the 'ecocean' house by King's Ningaloo Reef Tours. They did a great job in organising our day and our whale shark encounters. We were dropped on 5 different sharks today on 7 occasions. and had some great swims, tomorrow in the lab we will be looking in more depth at the photographs and trying to match them with previous sightings or identify new sharks.

Today we also trawled for plankton where the whale sharks were feeding, we will be analysing this in the lab tomorrow as well and will hopefully be able to upload photographs.

As I said earlier King's tours did great job dropping us over some great sharks, the first two were a touch rapid and were difficult to keep up with but all was well after that until we dropped into the largest jellyfish swarm I have ever seen ....... pass the vinegar.

After that we had some seriously good sharks including one with an entire reef worth of fish as an entourage.

On the way back in we also encountered turtles, a spinner shark, dugong and three dolphins, we also encountered a young and inquisitive whale shark who surfaced by the boat and stuck around for a few minutes for a photocall, so another great day on Ningaloo reef.

Richie

Team 2 Earthwatch Woodside TeachLive Day 5

Hello World!

Ningaloo; How's the serenity?!

If there is one thing more lovely than sitting out in a boat off Ningaloo Reef on a windless calm day with clear blue skies and shining turquoise waters then it would be this...

...cruising along under those same still, silent waters alongside a beheamoth of a creature that glides effortlessly along without so much of a care for anything around it, accompanied by a veritable aquarium of friends that includes everything from suckerfish to cobias and tiny fishlings to giant trevally.

The photos we got yesterday were great, the nonchalance of the whale sharks allowed heaps of time to swim into just the right position and then back around to the other side for more shots.

It was very rewarding today to actually identify the sharks using those same photos. In fact one of the sharks, one with a significant propellor scar on its back, was identified with a known shark that had photos of it as recent as three days ago without the scar, so obviously a recent event...

Take care, serenty seekers when you are out there on your boats and keep an eye out for our friends the whale sharks.

Damon

Team 2 Earthwatch Woodside TeachLive Day 4

Following from Day 3, the weather for Day 4 was fantastic- sunny with very little breeze. A perfect day to be out on the boat! Luckily, I was part of the whalesharking group for the day. We started the day with a snorkel at a site inside the Ningaloo Reef and saw a huge array of marine reef fish. This included a number of large pufferfish and many species of damsels and chromis such as the ones in the pic to the left.

After abit of morning tea back on the boat, we had a briefing on the Code of Conduct when swimming with whalesharks - an important part of ensuring the impact of snorkellers on the whalesharks is minimised. Following the briefing we headed outside the reef in search of the biggest fish in the sea. We didn't need to search for long, and found a small (3.5-4m) beauty just outside the reef in shallow water.

This was the first of five different whalesharks we saw on the day. The other four were abit larger ranging in size from 5-8m long. The largest was distinguished by a damaged pectoral fin and a large tumour growth on the left hand side of its body - hopefully the marks will aid in the identification of the shark in the ECOCEAN database when we take the pictures to the lab tomorrow.

After a few hours of snorkelling with the whalesharks and photo-documenting their spots, we had lunch on the boat as we made our way back inside the Ningaloo Reef for a quick snorkel to end the day.

Again, the reef was packed with life and I found a few butterfly fish and lunar wrasse taking a snack on an unsuspecting jelly (left top), aswell as a family of banded humbugs hanging out in a staghorn coral (left bottom).

After a productive day on the water, we headed back to the ECOCEAN research house to see how the other group fared in the lab with the photo-identification of the sharks they sited on Day 3. A number of the sharks were matched to sharks that had initially visited the Ningaloo Reef as far back as 1996! So it was another productive day for both groups.

Sean

Team 2 Earthwatch Woodside TeachLive Day 3

Today was the first day we split into two groups. One team went back out onto the water in search of whale sharks again and the other headed to the lab to learn the photo ID processing work. It was a pretty exciting day for both in the end! The whale shark team had a nice clear day with excellent visibility and saw a few whale sharks - one of at least 8-9metres. There was also a bit of action with a humpback whale breaching which was pretty amazing. They came back with plenty of photo ID shots from the whale sharks for the day and they will be able to process them when it's their turn in the lab tomorrow.

The other team for today hit the lab and learnt how to process and upload the photo ID images of whale sharks. The idea is to take the best possible photo you can from preferrably the left side of the whale shark, just behind it's fifth gill. A certain patch of dots around this surrounding area can be put through a mathematical algorithm to identify it's sequence and positioning, much like they do with stars. Once the best images have been selected, they are then cropped to this particular area. A triangle is created between three starting points and all the best and most distinct spots on the whale shark within this area are selected. The selected spots are then scanned into a database of nearly 5,000 other images of whale sharks and hopefully there is a match! Our first image we processed came up with a match from a whale shark that had been seen at Ningaloo Reef every year since 2004 but had not been seen at all this season. It's last sighting was in 2008, so it was a great start to the day.

Both teams came back to the house happy and satisfied with the days learnings and discoveries and tomorrow will swap places and do it again.

Caroline

Team 2 Earthwatch Woodside TeachLive Day 2

Day 2 for the team started with breakfast and then pick-up by the whaleshark operator we were whalesharking with. We were picked up by bus and tranpsorted to Tantabiddi, where the whaleshark operators anchor and each day travel to the outside of Ningaloo Reef where the whalesharks are found.

Unfortunately the weather was overcast, windy and a little cool, however all that was forgotten when we all had the first of the swim day with one of these magnificent whalesharks - these charismatic megafauna! As the day unfolded, the weather didn't improve and there were a few cold and sometimes seasick people on the boat, but we ended up swimming with 7 different whalesharks, which ranged in size from about 3 metres to 7 metres. One particular creature was extremely fast and tired out a few of the people trying to keep up. However other sharks compensated by moving effortlessly through the water at a very civilised speed for all the who were vying for glimpses and full views of theses spotted sharks which are the largest fishes in the world.

For the Earthwatch Woodside Teachlive team, this was a great opportunity to practice using the underwater digital cameras to try to capture the spot pattern behind the gill slits and above the pectoral fin for use with the Photo_Id database. Whatever we did, it worked as a few exciting IDs were made in the lab on Day 3.

Susie

Team 2 Earthwatch Woodside TeachLive

Blog: Day 1

We began our Earthwatch Whale Sharks of Ningaloo 2009 journey today with a spirtual welcome to country by local Aboriginal representative custodian Ann Preest. We learnt the significance of how the West Thalanyji people of North West Cape are inter-related to the land surrounding Exmouth and how in the dreaming this land was created. Ann expressed to us how priviledged we were to be interacting with this land and its people in such a unique experience as to to be swimming with the the Whale Shark and the importance of abiding by traditional ways of being in this historic environment.

We were all thoroughly engrossed in what Ann had to say about Exmouth and its people and were very grateful to have had such a knowledgable person introducing us to her country.

After a long day of travel our team were ready to head back to town after such a memorable welcoming and were all looking forward to what the next 8 days had in store for us.

Trent

Team 1: It's Counting Time...

It’s been a busy week for the six Earthwatch Volunteers. And now it’s time for the final count so you all can see for yourself just how much they’ve helped the ECOCEAN Photo-Identification Library.

Days on the water: 3/person
Days in the lab: 3/person
Whale sharks photo-tagged: 20
Sharks processed (images from local dive operators): 167
(Both new sharks and repeat Ningaloo visitors)

The highlight of the photo-tagging was a repeat sighting of a shark that was originally seen in 1996, and then was only identified by its right hand patterning. Now several of the Exmouth whale shark operators have had the pleasure of swimming with this eight meter shark on multiple occasions over the course of this past week. He now has a happy home in the library, as shark A-221.

Thank you to all for your enthusiasm and hard work: Natalie, Tanya, Leah, Doris, Alex, Ken! And a special thanks to Yohanna for keeping everyone excited and entertained. It’s been a great start to the season!

Now stay tuned as more sharks are photo-tagged and processed into the library in the weeks to come.




Signing off,
Steve and Darcy

Team 1: Mother's Day Whale Sharks

Happy Mothers Day!

Today dawned sunny and warm – another beautiful day in paradise!

The groups again split in two, with group 1 going to the lab to continue with the valuable photo identification work, while group 2 (Nat, Alex and Doris, with the able assistance of Steve and Yohanna) got to head back out to the water.

Today with headed out with King Dive to swim with the whale sharks, and from the moment we stepped onto the spacious boat it was fun, relaxed, and almost luxury – a perfect way to spend mothers day in our “home-away-from-home”.

We first headed out to the inside reef to try out our gear (and for the hosts to make sure we could swim!) and have a bit of fun. Romani from King Dive accompanied us out there, taking photos of us frolicking in the warm, clear water. Coral atolls, colourful fish, sea slugs, jelly fish, wrasse and parrot fish, all vying for our attention in the shimmering sunlight. Perfect!

All to soon it was time to head back on board for a scrumptious morning tea and compulsory safety lecture, and then the highly capable staff headed us south in search of the whale sharks. With dolphins dancing in the distance, the sunlight warming us as we lolled on the front deck, and the turtles bobbing along, we thought the day couldn’t get any better.

It wasn’t long before the first whale shark was found and in we all (ok, the first half anyway) dived! An open mouth heading our way from the depths heralded the arrival of this 6 m majestic fish. A mad scramble for positions, a few measured photos of the left and right pectoral sides for identification, and a few minutes to enjoy the experience before passing the whale shark to the next group and diving back in for an even bigger lad– our perfect day had gotten better!

We had several drops on him (they had knick-named him “Gillett” due to the nick out of his tail) and it was pure magic. It also allowed us to really take note of him – scrapes and scars, a tag in his dorsal fin, the nick in his tail, the fish swimming with him – all helpful information on his ongoing monitoring. He descended to the reef bottom a few times, but we could still just make him out by the white fish swimming with him. Such camouflage!

Before long it was time to say goodbye to him too, but not much further away were two more, including a young one no more than 3 metres long! More photos for identification and then time to relax and enjoy the experience. At one stage, the little lad was at the front of the boat, and the larger boy almost launched himself onto the Marlin Board at the rear of the boat, much to the delight of those on board! (The boat had turned off his motors to avoid them both!) It certainly gave those on board something to look at and much to talk about! (OK, so maybe he didn’t launch himself, but he swam so close to the boat that those of us swimming beside him ran into the side of the boat!).

All too soon it was time to say goodbye to those wonderful creatures and indulge our other senses with a gourmet lunch. Another relaxing swim on the reef in the afternoon, and all too soon it was time to head back in and rejoin the rest of the group working hard in the lab for the day!

Wow, what a Mothers Day!

-Natalie

Team 1: Measuring the sharks

Wow, what a day for Ken, Leah and Tanya (again)! Out third day snorkeling with the whale sharks, and it was certainly no let down. While Alex, Doris and Natalie headed to the lab with Yo and Steve to delve in to some data entry following their successful day snorkeling on Friday, we were up nice and early to join Ningaloo Whale Shark & Dive.

Another blissful morning starting at the boat ramp at Tantabidi, sun warming our faces, soft sand under foot and the beautiful turquoise water promised another stunning day.

Out on the boat, it didn’t take long for the spotter plane to get up in the air at 10am and radio through the first sighting of a whale shark. The shark did dive away but before long there was another whale shark in the area and with a splash, we were in and swimming away!

The biggest highlight of the entire trip for me was definitely the opportunity today to have a long swim with the fourth beautiful whale shark we came across, a smaller male. It’s too hard to describe in words but kicking firmly away with my fins to keep up with this amazing fish was initially challenging.

But before too long, I’d forgotten about kicking, breathing through a snorkel and slipped in to an amazing place of being in awe at the shark beside me and feeling truly at peace within this amazing environment. What an overwhelming feeling… Darcy was also gliding alongside and we enjoyed the 30-40 minutes swimming with the whale shark. Just amazing :o)

During the morning Brad and Darcy also got some ‘sciency’ work done (made up word to rival Ken’s ‘awesomer’). Measuring tape in hand, they dived down to take length measurements of the sharks.

Brad also launched a plankton net over the back of the boat to sample what the sharks have been munching on in the water. The net returned some water samples teeming with little critters that make up the staple diet of the whale sharks and all of the other magnificent residents of the Ningaloo Marine Park.

And then it finally got all too much for Ken and Brad who had to ‘rest their eyes’… Leah couldn’t resist the opportunity to take a photo showing the boys hard at work!

The day wrapped up with a snorkel in the finally jellyfish-free waters closer to shore and before we knew it, we were back at the house to regale Yo, Nat, Alex , Doris and Steve with our stories from the day.

Nat cooked up a storm of yummy spaghetti meatballs in the kitchen and Yo finished it off with artistically arranged slices of strawberry on cheesecake. A perfect end to a fantastic day.

… And tomorrow, the lab team will be back on the boat to snorkel and help Nat enjoy her Mother’s Day.


-Tanya

Team 1: A Dream Fulfilled

Today group two (Nat, Doris, Alex) led by Dacy and Yo went with the Tour Operator, Ningaloo Dreaming, to take photos of the Whale Sharks. Group one (Ken, Tanya, Leah) led by Brad and Steve, went to the lab to identify Whale Sharks.

Group one had an amazing day, seeing four Whale Sharks. One swim with the Whale Sharks lasted 50 mins, which is an incredible amount of time and pretty rare! There are some great pics and even a 10 mins video (see below). Yo got to see Whale Sharks today, a 13 year dream fulfilled – we could hear the screams of joy from the lab J !!! Excited is an understatement. “It’s not just the highlight of my day, it’s the highlight on my life” said Yo.

Group two had an induction into the lab and a lesson in how to upload and identity Whale Sharks. Whale Sharks have spots that are as individual as a human finger prints and therefore you can identity individuals through photos or video footage. One of the highlights of the day was the identification of a Whale Shark that hadn’t been identified since 1996 and by chance was also part of Brad’s thesis! “I almost went cross-eyed looking at all those spots, but it was a great day” said Tanya. We had an impromptu visit from Ann who had given us a ‘Welcome to Country’ on the 1st day.

For dinner we had a bit of a schitzo dinner with both BBQ lamb chops/veggie snags and baked veggies – nice after a hard days work. As it was Friday night some wine and beer was had to celebrate and congratulate Yo on her dream fulfilled!!!

-Leah

Team 1: On the Water and in the Lab

Today we broke up the six volunteer research assistants into two groups, one in the water photographing/collecting data of the sharks, and the other in the lab analysing the data. Luckily enough I was in the group to go diving again.

Diving yesterday with the whalesharks was awesome, but today was even more awesomerer, if there is such a word. We came across seven sharks ranging from 4 metres to 8 -10 metres. At one stage we found two sharks frolicking together on top of the water. Unfortunately once we got into the water they soon dived down out of sight, maybe we were interrupting something.

Today’s tour operator was very professional, supplied great food, made you very relaxed but still ensured we respected the sharks space and environment. They kept saying “this would have to be one of their best days they have had and we are so lucky to be here today”. Maybe it’s part of there sales pitch they say to everyone to make them feel special, but I believe they truly meant it. And why wouldn’t you, swimming with seven different sharks in a great location, it doesn’t get much better than this.

The guys in the lab had some wins as well today, analysing some photos of the sharks taken previously, and managing to finger print match them to other footage of sharks taken elsewhere. They were pretty excited telling us all about it on our return, until we mentioned what we got up to today. Oh well they’re the breaks, hopefully tomorrow they will have as much luck and fun, as we had today.

We finished off today with a talk from Emily Wilson, the Whale Shark Project Officer from the Department of Environment and Conservation. She gave an informative presentation of the whale sharks at Ningaloo Marine Park, including the population of whale sharks at the park each season, the areas where they are found in the world, and the paths taken by some of the whales which were tagged with tracking devices back in 2002.

Tomorrow’s a lab day for our group, so hopefully the photos we took today we help us identify some of the whale sharks, and get a real appreciation of what Brad as been up to all these years.

-Ken

Team 1: Out with the Sharks!

Today is the first day all the Earthwatch volunteers and Brad went out to the waters for our first whale shark sighting. Everyone was really excited, and we woke up bright and early to start our day. At 7 in the morning, the team walked to meet the dive operators at the Exmouth Dive Centre. The drive out to the reef was about 45 minutes.

We started the day out in the waters with a bit of snorkeling to get everyone familiarised with snorkeling equipment, and then, the chase for the whale sharks begins!! As whale sharks are wild animals, no one knows when they will surface and for how long. Hence, once a plane spots one, the boat will rush to the spot near the whale shark and the dive operators rush everyone into the water in groups of tens with shouts of "GO GO GO", which can get a bit stressful.

The first time I saw a whale shark, it was AWESOME!!! I first heard Tanya squeal in delight at the sight of the big fish, before I caught sight of it. However, the first shark we saw was swimming quite deep in the waters, and it dived after a while.
The second shark that we saw was in shallower waters. The first time I saw how close it was, it felt was as if time just stopped (except for the fact that I have to remember to fanatically kick- kick-kick my fins). The second shark was in shallower waters and hence cannot dive but instead just circled around, which gave us the opportunity to spend ages with the shark, via numerous drops into the waters. I remember one particular drop where once I got into the water, I saw the shark coming straight at me, with its open mouth, and I panicked!!

However, in that split second, I made the decision to snap a picture (as attached), before I quickly swim out of the shark’s way. Chasing after the whale sharks also made me realise how physically unfit I am! Some of us also saw a turtle while we were swimming after the whale shark, and was torn between making a de-tour to take pictures of the turtle, or to continue swimming after the whale shark.


Leah and myself got a bit seasick on the boat after a few drops into the water, and couldn't take any of the lovely lunch that was served on the boat. The day out in the waters ended with another snorkel episode. All in all, the trip out was wonderful and we are happy snorkelers.

For dinner, we had Mexican food that was kindly prepared by Leah and Tanya (even though they are as tired as the rest of us after our first day out "whale-sharking").

Post dinner, Steve Lindfield, winner of the Rolex Underwater Scholarship in 2008 gave a presentation on the "Year of his life", summarized in a 15 minute powerpoint presentation. In that year, Steve visited various dive sites in Indonesia, Canada, Australia, US, Egypt and other countries and had the opportunity to worked with various marine biologist and dive masters. My thoughts were “this award is so much better than the Queensland Tourism Hamilton Island Dream Job”.

And to end this wonderful day of “First Whale Shark Encounter”, Brad made us some wonderful dessert...yum yum!

-Doris

Team 1: Introduction to Ningaloo

Hi Everybody,

I’m Alex, and the day has finally arrived where I become a volunteer for the Earthwatch expedition with whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) at Ningaloo Reef.

I arrived at the Exmouth Visitors Centre at about 2pm, and was met there by the expedition leader Brad Norman, from there we were taken to our accommodation. Once there, introductions took place and I was pleased to officially meet fellow team members Tanya, Natalie, Leah, Doris and Ken as well as the research staff Darcy Bradley, Steve Lindfield and Yohanna Aurisch. It didn’t take long for the conversation to turn to whale sharks.

At about 5.15pm we went to Vlamingh Head Lighthouse to participate in a welcome to country by Ann Preest, on behalf of Mr John Dale, of the North West Cape Aboriginal Corporation. Ann is the endorsed representative of the late Sydney Dale (Munarbrie). He was the custodian of the Yinigudura-West Thalanyji people of North West Cape.

Anne’s welcome was as interesting as it was moving as she told us of the local indigenous history of the area. As part of the welcome we introduced ourselves not only to Anne, but also to her ancestors in order that they also got to know us, then there was a beautiful sunset to finish off day one.


There’s only one thing left to say, and that is everybody is excited about tomorrow’s encounter with the whale sharks.

See ya later,
Alex.