We’ve just had a very special couple of days here in the Komodo National Park. It was time to learn more about one of our favourite species in the ocean – sharks! Brendon and Liz from Shark Guardian, who are based in Khao Lak Thailand, came to visit to teach us more about these amazing creatures. Their main goal is to educate the future generation on the importance of sharks for our oceans and with that the need to conserve these incredible animals. Even though it has been many years ago that sharks started to be portrayed as “dangerous man eating creatures”, the misconceptions about sharks are still very much alive these days. All the more important to change these attitudes and make people more aware about how important it is for all of us to get or keep our shark populations healthy.
So we started in Labuan Bajo where Brandon and Liz gave a presentation about sharks in town for 60 people. A very informative evening with some amazing footage from dwarf lantern sharks to whalesharks and from wobbegong sharks to great whites. The next day it was time to start exploring the Komodo National Park. On our way to the Cakrawala Biru we already encountered quite a few black tip and white tip reef sharks and of course the really healthy and stunning coral gardens that Komodo has to offer. In the evening Brandon taught us about the anatomy of sharks, their incredible senses and how to recognize different sharks and especially the sharks of Komodo. In the area here we mainly see black tip reef sharks, white tip reef sharks, grey reef sharks and brown banded bamboo sharks. Now all we had to do was find them!
At the Cauldron we saw a couple of white tip reef sharks and a different species of the elasmobranch family, our beautiful manta rays – essentially flattened sharks. Next up was Castle Rock, probably the most “sharky” dive in the national park. Lots of white tip reef sharks were hanging around and the amount of fish was uncountable. Beside that, on this day a black tip reef shark came to visit us in the Golden Passage. A nice sunset later, as usual combined with an extreme beach clean-up, got us ready to learn more.
In the evening we learned about the threats sharks have been facing for many years now. Primarily losing their fins for shark fin soup, but also ghost nets floating in the ocean, baited drumlines, overfishing and marine debris have a devastating effect on our shark populations. Out of the 500 species of sharks only 6 so far are protected. The status of sharks species on the IUCN red list is not only concerning because 1/3rd of them are categorized as near threatened up to critically endangered. A shocking 50% of the sharks species are categorized as data deficient. That means that we don’t have enough data to show in which category they fall. Numbers vary, but it’s safe to say at least 70 million sharks get killed each year. With their slow reproduction rate, yearly intervals between pregnancies and 8-30 years to reach sexual maturity they are very vulnerable.
A lot of people simply don’t know what is happening to our oceans and that’s why education is so important. Without apex predators like sharks in our oceans we could run out of oxygen for our planet, and create oceans full of algae and jellyfish. Beside education, researchers also need data to learn more about sharks and shark populations. So, that is where divers come in and can make a big difference! By logging the data on their dives; how many sharks did they see, what kind of sharks, were there any other rays, turtles or marine debris on the dive and so on. After every dive Brendon enthusiastically questioned everybody on what they saw on their dives! Wicked data!
After learning a lot more about sharks and their importance it was time again to dive with them. Trip leader Steve got us out of bed at the ridiculous hour of 05:30 in the morning! All of us did slightly question this hour of the day, but afterwards, we all agreed it was the best time ever! What an epic, spectacular dive on an early morning Castle Rock. Not only were there tons of reef fish around, but we also saw herds of white tip reef sharks, several grey reef sharks and even dolphins! The dolphins were very active and the white tips just followed in a school up to 14 following the dolphins hoping to pick up the scraps from their breakfast. Giant trevallys were hunting the poor fusiliers all over the place and grey reefs came in very close to the reef and joined the party. By far one of the best dives we have ever done in the Komodo National Park! Beside that we managed to find the last species we were hoping to see on Karang Makassar: a ‘resting’ brown banded bamboo shark.
What a fantastic trip. Brandon told us we saw more than 50 sharks on this 3 day trip, which is incredible! With all the data we collected we are a little step further to providing Indonesia with data to make them keep their waters protected and their reefs healthy. Both Wicked Diving and Shark Guardian will keep on educating the future generations on the importance of sharks. And that’s possible thanks to all of our wonderful guests who have decided to come dive with us. 2% of what YOU pay goes to conservation efforts and various community projects and education plays a vital role in that.
So, a big thank you to Jamie, Julia, Ali, Ed, Joe, Bryce, Lynn, John, Walter and Dorianne for joining us on this special shark education trip. With supporting these trips you have made a big contribution to raising shark awareness and helping to protect sharks by collecting data. Finally, a massive thanks to Brendon and Liz from Shark Guardian for coming to dive with us and sharing their incredible knowledge.
