Cenderawasih Bay National Park, Papua, Indonesia

5CaliforniaBelgian 5:00 PM May 13, 2014

Whale sharks of Cenderawasih Bay
Brief summary: Where: Nabire, Indonesia What: daytrip to see whale sharks Duration: 2h by boat one way, depart 6am, return 3-4pm Price: 4.5 million IDR for a couple included: nothing but the transport Overall experience: Spectacular / once in a lifetime Further remarks: if you expect American standards of safety and service (knowledgeable guides, food & drink, life jackets, safe boat, general feeling of safety and control over the situation) go to Australia, this is not for you. Long review: Since a few years, a corner of Cenderawasih Bay close to the hamlet of Kwatisore and the town of Nabire, in Indonesian Papua, is gathering major buzz as probably the best place in the planet to swim with whale sharks. Here, whale sharks don't just pass by seasonally, like in most other places, where expensive tours drop you in the path of one shark for 5 minutes (and you better swim fast). Here they stay year-round, gathering nearly every single day to circle under fishermen platforms called "bagans", in the hopes of sucking some fish out of their storage nets. Here you have a very good chance to have not one, but SEVERAL behemoths CIRCLE around you. Here you'll have to swim to AVOID the sharks bumping into you (which happened to me and my wife). However, at the time of writing this review, Nabire remains a VERY remote corner of Indonesia: we saw NO westerners over our entire stay there. There are few hotels, catering mostly to Indonesians, and who very surprisingly have no idea of how to get you to the whale sharks. Most people who see the Cenderawasih bay whale sharks come on liveaboard boats. Very few people organize trips to see the whale sharks from Nabire, and those who do are difficult to contact. The only person who replied to our emails was a Rudy from Kali Lemon, a "guesthouse/dive resort" near Kwatisore, but he asked for more than 800 dollars for an overnight trip (no, thanks). So we landed at the Nabire airport with NO reservations, nothing booked in advance. One option to go see the whale sharks is to ask taximen at the airport; they can put you in contact with fishermen who'll take you. We instead finally managed to reach a person listed in our guidebook, Merry Yoweni and her husband Chris, who organised the trip with local fishermen. She's a local, speaks great english, and is very knowledgeable about the region, it's politics and economy, etc, since she worked for several NGO's. So the next day, we sat aboard a narrow wooden fishermen longboat rigged with two 40hp outboards (a configuration the Lonely Planet calls “a recipe for disaster”), while 15 papuans were dragging it to the water at Nabire beach. We then left with 3 papuan fishermen, one of which (the captain actually), we soon realized, was mute and deaf. 10 minutes later, the boat started taking in water, which to our great surprise they fixed successfully with a knife and a piece of plastic bottle. Luckily we had good weather, but the experience could have been a lot less comfortable in rougher seas. After 1h45 of navigation we arrived in the zone of the bagans. After asking 6 bagans unsuccessfully, we finally arrived at one that had 3 whale sharks under it: 2 “juveniles” and one enormous (Apparently 3 is not a lot for Cenderawasih, where many people report from 5 to 10+) . It was of course magical as you can imagine. The sea was flat like a pool, the visibility was forever, the sharks were slowly circling around us through the rays of light that plunged in the blue as far as light can reach. Our guidebook said to “discourage the locals from interfering with the animals” but we failed miserably: the Papuans were out of control jumping around joyfully, riding the whale sharks, even divebombing from the bagan next to the whalesharks (they must think they love the bubbles). Last point: juvenile whale sharks are quite curious, and seem VERY attracted by shiny/white masses, such as untanned European tourists. Wear a wetsuit or expect some collisions. One of them pushed my wife's head against a bagan floater with his humongous mouth, an experience she did not appreciate as much as I did…

5globallybusy 5:00 PM Jan 15, 2015

Surreal whale shark experience!
Nabire is far off the beaten track and expensive to fly into, with connections via Ambon or Jayapura on Wings/Lion air. However, spending the day snorkeling/diving with whale sharks is a fantastic experience - there will be you, a couple of the local fishermen, the whale sharks and some grey/silky sharks circling in the deep. Getting the diving organized is almost impossible in Nabire unless you go with one of the resorts that are reviewed previously; rumor has it a military general is controlling all the diving here and so the local fishermen do not necessarily benefit from the tourism. Knowledge of English is rudimentary around here - so your best bet is to text Nanda in basic English (number below) upon arrival in Nabire; his family are the fishermen who live their lives in Cendrawasih Bay; so he can help organize the driver, logistics of the boat and fuel. Your day will consist of: 1. Departure from Nabire at 7am 2. A 2.5hr drive on a part asphalt, part dirt road through the jungle to a random beach near the village of Kwatisore 3. Getting on to some fairly rickety fishing boats to visit the bagans (fishing platforms) where the small fish are caught. some of these bagans will have the whale sharks which are attracted to the fish in the nets - you may have to visit 5-10 of the bagans before you spot the whale sharks. we snorkeled with our own equipment. 4. The grey reef sharks and silky sharks circling below in the deep add to the excitement; try not to look like a seal in distress - they are attracted to the surface by splashing around. 5. Return back to Nabire by 6pm. This is not a trip for the faint of heart; you will need your wits and spirit of adventure about you. Plan an extra day so you arent disappointed if the logistics dont work out on a particular day. Cost: an eye-watering 4.5million IDR (US$375) for your whole group per day. You could probably bargain it down by a little bit. Nothing except transport is included in the price. Disclaimer: The people whose contact info is in the guidebooks e.g. Lonely Planet, are just facilitators, some of whom don't even live in Nabire. Their only purpose is to act as translators and skim off a significant overhead from the price. I think it is preferable to interact with the fisherman's family directly.