I did a lot of diving around Asia during 2007 - Philippines, Palau, Australia, Bali, Thailand - which I've recapped on my End of Year Review on my other site Travelhappy. (It seemed a bit silly to duplicate the list here). Diving is the main thing that keeps me travelling and I am hoping I will get to dive many new destinations in Asia during 2008 too.

My friend Rob had the best Christmas present ever - not one but two whale sharks showed up at Hin Muang pinnacle off Koh Lanta, Thailand during his dive the day after Christmas. We got some awesome video footage of the whale sharks thanks to DD, and you can see the video and read the full story on the Amazing Lanta dive blog.

I have also just uploaded about 20 great white shark video clips from my July trip with Rodney Fox in South Australia to YouTube. I need to go back and caption them all properly to give a better idea of what's happening in each clip, but each one is pretty short. Here's my YouTube page of great white sharks plus some other videos as well (including the famous cuttlefish face stretching!)

Halt The Salt is a website dedicated to stopping the construction of the world's biggest salt mine on the shores of Exmouth Gulf. The Gulf is home to Ningaloo Reef, one of the most spectacular reef systems in the world where whale sharks migrate every year for the annual coral spawning. Experts and locals alike fear that if the Salt Mine goes ahead, it will radically disrupt the environment of the Gulf and have a dreadful impact on the Gulf's marine life.

From the Halt The Salt website:

Straits Resources [the salt mine builder] has had to acknowledge in its own documentation the environmental concerns associated with its proposed salt mine:

* Potential loss of mangroves and associated biota such as algal mats in an area of recognised significance for these systems.
* Potential shipping and salt production impact on marine fauna such as whales and dugongs and their supporting habitats.
* Potential impact on marine and terrestrial nutrient inputs introduced by the presence of the salt field and the significance of this to the Gulf’s wider ecosystem.
* Development in an area recommended to be set aside as a marine conservation reserve.

The proposed salt mine development is absolutely huge, some 70 kilometres long and only set a few kilometres back from the coast line. Having dived Exmouth myself and heading back there again in May this year, I am pretty appalled that they would even consider proposing this, given that Ningaloo Marine Park is a protected marine area and Exmouth itself is a burgeoning tourist destination precisely because of its amazing marine life. Anything that could endanger Ningaloo's pristine status seems incredibly inconsiderate and motivated purely by profit with scant concern for the environment.

As well as porviding in-depth information into exactly what Straits Resources propose and its potential effect on the environment, the Halt The Salt website also let you take action by registering your objections to the local politicians and also helping raise awareness of the Halt The Salt campaign.

This is, in every sense, a magnificent book - a hefty, oversized hardback chock full of spectacular photographs as befits its subject matter, the biggest fish in the world: the whale shark. Weighing in at several tons and measuring up to a staggering 12 metres in length, whale sharks remain an enigma to even the most expert marine scientists. Little is known about them - where they come from, where they go, how they breed - or even how many of them are still in the oceans. What is known about them is due in no small part to the book's author Geoff Taylor, an English doctor who emigrated to Western Australia in the 1970s. Dr Taylor heard about the mysterious creatures passing by Ningaloo Reef, a vast coral reef system half way up the West Coast, over a thousand miles away from Western Australia's capital city Perth, itself officially the most remote capital city in the world. Taylor's fascination for finding out more about the whale sharks led him to live in Exmouth, a tiny coastal town perched next to Ningaloo surrounded by thousands of desolate square miles of the outback.

Being so close to Ningaloo and able to observe its monthly changes, Taylor realised that the whale sharks' arrival at the reef seemed to correspond with the coral's annual spawning - the reef's reproductive frenzy which leaves the water thick with secreted eggs and sperm. Despite their fearsome size, whale sharks eat only plankton, hoovering in huge quantities of water through toothless mouths the size of a sofa to feed - for them, the spawning is a gastronomic delight which draws them back year after year. This realisation is straightforward enough to recount, but less than twenty years ago it was still a completely unheard of theory - and sighting whale sharks around Exmouth's coast was still a definitively rare event.

Once the connection was made between the coral spawning and the whale sharks' migration, word quickly spread of whale shark sightings and the beginning of the 1990s saw a flurry of film makers for the likes of National Geographic heading for Western Australia to capture footage of these amazing creatures. Taylor himself was caught up in that first wave of documenting the whale sharks and his book is a visual testament to his success in doing so. Besides capturing spectacular photos and video footage, a program of tagging the sharks was also set in place to try and learn more about them.

That the text in "Whale Sharks" is as good as the truly double-take inducing photographs gives me particular pleasure. Too often a book that has great images is lessened by will-this-do text slung in around it. What's often forgotten is that whilst images capture the attention, words are what stimulate the imagination - they provide the context and the passion of how these photos came to exist in the first place and, in recounting just how difficult it was to take photos of the whale shark in its natural habitat, provide a unique insight into man's discovery, interaction and, some would argue, exploitation of these creatures.

Go to Exmouth now, 15 years on, and you'll find a burgeoning whale shark industry - spotter planes go out every morning to locate the whale sharks and radio their position to boats full of eager snorkellers. So popular has swimming with whale sharks become that the Australian authorities have imposed thoughtful and strictly enforced limits on human encounters with them: no more than 8 people in the water at a time, no touching and no scuba diving around them. Even so, there are concerns about the whale sharks and the state of aquatic life in general around Exmouth.Taylor's book indicates there has been a marked decline in the fish stocks around Ningaloo Reef in the last 20 years and he is distinctly ambivalent about the consequences of the publicity he helped bring to bear on the whale sharks. The sheer popularity of encounters with them seems to be damaging the marine environment and, of course, no one is quite sure what it is doing to the sharks. There is a lot of money being made around the whale sharks, but selling the message of looking after them and their habitat is in danger of being neglected. Taylor's book captures the beauty of these unique creatures and also sounds a distinct warning about their future, all the more effective and convincing for being phrased with the calm, rational logic of a doctor.

The real heartbreaker here for me is that Whale Sharks: The Giants Of Ningaloo Reef is not readily available to buy. You can't get it on Amazon or even Abebooks easily - the only surefire way to get a copy is to contact Dr Taylor himself through his informative website and order a copy direct. (It's how I got mine - he even signed it, bless). It'll cost you quite a bit in postage as he still lives in Western Australia, but it is worth every penny. If you're a snorkeller or diver or just vaguely interested in the sea, I guarantee you'll be fascinated by this: and if you've got kids, this is a fantastic picture book to give them that will set their imagination in motion.

[Update: Whale Sharks is currently available second hand on Amazon.co.uk for the ridiculous price of £110 and Amazon.com for US$40. Thanks Willy!]

I keep tabs on the "whale sharks" tag on Flickr - it's pretty quiet most of the time, but this morning I was rewarded with a glorious set of photos taken by Flickr user Kiwi Vic of a recent visit to Exmouth in Western Australia. The whale sharks are at Exmouth right now as part of their annual migration and Kiwi Vic got several impressive snaps of the whale sharks plus extra shots of the spotting boat they were on and the other divers - it gives you a good visual idea of what it's like to go out looking for the whale sharks.

I wrote up my own experience of diving with whale sharks in Exmouth recently, and Divehappy has a whole Whale Shark section to browse too.

I wrote a while ago about wanting to visit the town of Donsol in the Philippines, which has become famous in the last 10 years due to the annual migration of whale sharks there every April. South Africa's Mail & Guardian Online has an excellent article about how the whale sharks have changed the fortunes of the town by bringing thousands of tourists to the area who want to see these amazing creatures - and also preserved the lives of the sharks themselves as fisherman realised they have more value alive as a tourist attraction.

However, the town's new found prosperity brings growing pains with it - not only providing quality accommodation for the 7000+ tourists who came last year but also combatting poachers and avoiding damaging the very environment that has allowed the whale sharks to thrive here. Already the local mayor has halved the amount of boats allowed out to see the sharks at any one time - to 25, while tourists have to watch a video about protecting the whale sharks before they go looking for them. It's all heartening stuff, but how well such measures will continue in the face of economic pressure to change remains to be seen.

Here's a great quote from the article:

Twenty-three other boats bobbed in the waters off Donsol. Most
sputtered back to shore by lunch, each encountering five to 10 whale
sharks.

"It was sort of scary because out of nowhere came this huge, square
face," said Eliot Bikales, a housewife from Hamden, Connecticut.

"It was like Jaws," her 10-year-old daughter, Maral, butted
in. But she said that after her fears eased, "it was OK. It felt like
they were my friends."

Sid Lucero, a young Filipino actor, said facing such a huge creature nearly moved him to tears.

"It hit me straight in the heart," he said. "Looking at this huge
creature reminded me that there is a higher being." Thanks to the new
tourism, the sharks have created about 1 000 seasonal jobs in Donsol, a
poor farming and fishing town of about 40 000 people once said to have
been a communist rebel stronghold.

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How can you not want to go somewhere called Ningaloo Reef?

I first heard about this irresistably named place reading my Lonely Planet Australia in rainy England while I was preparing to go backpacking around Oz in 2003. Just saying the word brought a smile to my face. It was also the first time I'd heard about whale sharks, the biggest fish in the world, gentle giants who feed on krill and come to Ningaloo Reef every year between April and June to feed on the coral spawning there. When I read about the whale sharks, I just knew I had to go to Ningaloo.

Easier said than done. Ningaloo Reef is located in one of the most remote places in Australia - half way up the Western Australian coast, over a 1000 miles away from Perth, itself the most remote capital city in the world. (It's the capital of the state, not the country). Getting to Perth is a five hour plane trip just from Sydney, and then getting to Exmouth, the tiny town nearest to Ningaloo, is another hour or so in a small plane or a three day bus trip up the coast, stopping off at other places of interest along the way. (There's a great company called Easy Riders who run these buses who I'd thoroughly recommend). Whichever way you cut it, you're going to spending considerable effort to get there.

Exmouth Town
Once you do arrive in Exmouth, it can be quite a system shock. It's the archetypal one-horse town. There's two pubs, both owned by the same guy, and their opening days alternate. There's a supermarket and couple of shops. There's a burger van on some nights who do cracking burgers. There's a few hotels. And that's about it. There were plans to build a huge marina project but the locals got it stopped, concerned about the environmental impact. I remember overhearing a classic conversation between a tourist and a resident:

"So where's the town centre?"

"You're standing in it, mate".

True story.

Exmouth is perched on the edge of the vast West Australian desert, looking out into the Gulf Of Exmouth. The sky is perpetually vast and blue, the sun baking the red brown earth below which stretches out in a unbroken flat plain to meet it at the horizon. The town itself has a temporary feel, like everything has been cobbled together and could be taken down and removed overnight - maybe a legacy of most of Exmouth being flattened by a typhoon a few years ago. If you want to live out the cliche of feeling very small in the vastness of the desert, this is the place to do it. The desert and the sky are so huge they make not only you but the town around you feel like an imposition. As Nick Cave recently said in an interview, ""We kind of cling to the edges of the country and build our houses facing out to the sea. We don't want to know about that huge, vast, mysterious, terrifying expanse that is the middle of Australia."

Diving on Ningaloo Reef
Underwater, the barreness of the desert gives away to an overwhelming panoply of marine life. The waters around Ningaloo Reef are gin clear, with 20 metre visibility letting you drop in and see swathes of pristine coral reef stretching away beneath you. Reef sharks lazily hang around on the sandy bottom, turtles slowly munch coral, octopus pop in and out of their hidey-holes, great clouds of fish flit around out in the blue... it's truly breathtaking. The dives are all fairly shallow as well, no more than 18 metres and there's little current - in short, there's little to distract you from looking at the amazing life on the reef. It's easy to get in and out to the dive sites too - generally it's less than 20 minutes in a small rib to get out to them from the shore.

Exmouth Navy Pier dive
Besides the reefs themselves, there's also the fabled Exmouth Navy Pier dive, rated as one of the best dives in Australia and maybe the world. There's certainly a lot of life amongst the girders of the Navy Pier, but on the two dives I did there, it was pretty murky viz and the amount of other dives in the water made me feel a bit claustrophobic. You may see more species per cubic inch here, but I much prefer the wide open space of the reef itself. The Pier dive is one of those dives you simply have to do if you come to Exmouth because you hear so much about it - everyone else seemed to find a lot more exciting than me. For my money, I much preferred my dive under Busselton Jetty, further down the Western Australian coast.

Ningaloo Reef is not as big as the Great Barrier Reef over on the east coast of Australia - but at 280 kilometres long, Ningaloo is one of the largest and most significant coral eco systems in the world. (The Save Ningaloo website has a ton of amazing information about Ningaloo and just quite how unique it is - follow the "About the Ningaloo" link). It's also still one of the most pristine coral reefs in the world, which is why it still attracts the star attraction of Ningaloo - the whale sharks.

Whale Sharks at Ningaloo Reef
There are only a couple of dive operations in Exmouth, but they both operate whale shark expeditions in the same way. They use spotter planes to find the whale sharks as they come in to the reef and then send the diveboat after them. They are so confident they can find the sharks that they will take you on a second trip for free if they don't find one the first time. Australia has a strict policy about "interacting" with whale sharks - no more than 8 people in the water at a time with whale shark, no touching, keep out of its way...and no scuba diving either. You're only allowed to snorkel with whale sharks on these expeditions.

Of course, if you are scuba diving on the reef and a whale shark turns up while you're there, then no one can do anything about that. But scuba diving is not allowed with these spotting expeditions, and it's a good rule in my book. I can imagine the chaos of 8 divers jumping in to go see the whale shark - not only would the poor thing be frightened to death by being crowded, divers themselves could get a bit carried away and not watch their depth and air.

Besides, snorkelling is quite enough with whale sharks. When I went out on an expedition, we saw two sharks - the divemaster goes in first and everyone follows once she's positioned herself so the group doesn't slam into the whale shark itself. What happens next is just spectacular. Dip your head under the water with the mask and snorkel, realise the viz is easily 30 metres, look around...and there it is, the biggest fish in the world, moving slowly and with consumate grace through the water with a whole entourage of cleaner fish...straight towards you. It really is like watching a Star Destroyer move through the blue - the sense of space and the sheer size of this creature is mesmerising. As it gets closer, you realise that a) it's actually moving quite fast and b) it's really bloody big. Six metres long easily. Six metres! Three times my height!

The whale shark continued to unconcernedly come straight at us - they're renown for being curious about other creatures in the water, but despite their size, they are easily scared off. Our group frantically finned backwards so the shark could pass between two clusters of us - it passed straight through us, its huge, powerful tail less than a metre away from me. If I'd wanted to, I could have reach out and touched it. The group tentatively paddled with the whale shark as it moved along the surface for a few minutes, getting faster and leaving most of us straggling behind. Then it was gone. I could see it disappearing into the depths when I put my mask back into the water. The whole encounter for which I'd travelled half way around the world lasted no more than 10 minutes. And I felt absolutely elated.

Snorkelling back to the boat which was a couple hundred yards away, I suddenly realised we weren't alone in the water. Looking down, there were two large grey shapes about 20 metres below us. It turned out they were minke whales, gliding together seemingly without being bothered by us splashing around above. At the time, I didn't know they were minke whales, so my first thought was not "I am privileged once again to witness these amazing creatures in their natural habitat", but more "What the fuck is that?" I'd been told tales by the divemasters the night before that every so often the spotter plane gets it wrong and the big shape in the water below to which the expedition boat is directed turns out to not be a whale shark but actually the far more aggressive tiger shark. Hence why the DMs jump in first to check before the customers get in. Which seems wholly reasonable to me.

Whale Sharks In Danger?
Joking aside, my trip to Ningaloo really caught my imagination. I've subsequently become fascinated by whale sharks and read up quite a lot about them as well as enjoying a couple more magical encounters with them in Thailand. (See the Whale Sharks section of Divehappy for more, particularly my posts about Geoff Taylor's amazing book Whale Sharks: The Giants Of Ningaloo Reef; The Best Places To See Whale Sharks in Thailand; and my article about diving off Koh Lanta, where I saw a whale shark and five manta rays in one dive).

Going to Exmouth also opened my eyes to the burgeoning ecological and pollution problems that have to be constantly battled to try and keep the oceans in a decent state. While I was in the town there was a big protest movement, which was ultimately successful, to stop the development of a marina in the town, because Exmouth and the reef just couldn't cope with such an influx of visitors. I think these issues are always complex - but it's important to get involved and try and understand them and to speak up about the damage being done to the oceans - not in a preachy way, but simply to let people know, because it still remains largely out of sight and so out of mind.

There's a lot of concern about the popularlity of the whale shark expeditions too, and whether it's actually good for the sharks themselves. I think it's important to find a way to manage it so that people still get the chance to see the whale sharks in the natural habitat without causing the sharks distress - and also to use a way to fire more people's imaginations and suggest concrete ways of how they can help and how all of our lives, whether we can see it or not, have a huge impact on the amazing world around us. The whale sharks are a real symbol of that, a creature that is harmless to humans but inspires awe, but is endangered due to overfishing and coral reef destruction. I for one want the annual arrival of the whale sharks at Ningaloo Reef to remain as the highlight of Exmouth's yearly calendar for many years to come.

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NineMSN: "Western Australia is closer to asking for World Heritage protection for Ningaloo Reef, one of the world's most pristine marine environments.

"Ningaloo Reef is world renowned for its biological diversity, superlative beauty and outstanding geological values and it, along with Cape Range National Park, is one of the State's greatest nature-based tourism attractions," Environment Minister Mark McGowan said. said.

The reef is a habitat to more than 200 species of coral, 600 species of shellfish and other molluscs, 500 species of fish and several threatened species such as dugong and turtles.

It also is an important migratory path for humpback whales and important aggregation and feeding area for whale sharks.

World Heritage listing would help save the whale sharks by bringing their plight to international attention, Mr McGowan said." [Read the full story]

This is great news, although I'm surprised Ningaloo Reef isn't already under World Heritage protection. It's one of the most spectacular places I've ever dived, up there with the Similan Islands and Sipadan, and it's also home to the whale sharks between April and June each year. It should be on the agenda of anyone who's interested in diving in Australia.

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Recently I wrote about where to see whale sharks in Thailand - and this 2 minute video clip of a whale shark seen at Richelieu Rock last year provides a breathtaking snapshot of what it's like to scuba with a whale shark.

It's shot by Nick Hope, an underwater photographer based in Phuket. You can see the whale shark clip online at Google Video, and Nick has several more great underwater clips available on his own site Bubblevision, which are also free to view.

Willy at Divester has already vowed to come diving in Thailand to find the whale sharks - this video lets you see what you're missing Willy!

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Photo by Jez Tryner. See more of his portfolio at atmospheres.tv

Whales sharks are by no means only found in Thailand - Donsol in the Philippines and West Australia's Ningaloo Reef are two other big whale shark havens - but for many divers, Thailand is where they see their first whale shark. It's hard to express the sense of awe seeing one of these creatures for the first time - it's like watching a spaceship come out of the blue, serenely gliding towards you with a squadron of cleaner fish flanking it on all sides. It's only as it gets nearer, unphased by your presence, that you start to realise the speed it's moving at and the sheer power within its immense body. Most whale sharks are around 4 to 6 metres - at minimum, twice the size of a human. It's one of those moments when you realise that you are very much a privileged guest in another realm when you're scuba diving.

In Thailand, there are three key dive sites for seeing whale sharks
- Chumphon Pinnacle, accessible from Koh Tao;
- Hin Daeng, accessible from Phuket, Koh Phi Phi and Koh Lanta; and
- Richelieu Rock, which is north of the Similan Islands and accessible only as part of a Similan Islands liveaboard.

It should be stressed that while these are whale shark hotspots, it's still rare to see them - they are spotted perhaps 10 times maximum in a six month season. So if you go diving expecting to see a whale shark, you're probably going to be very disappointed. If you go diving with the idea that if you get very, very lucky one might turn up when you least expect it... it probably will.

Because Hin Daeng and Richelieu Rock are in the Andaman Sea on the west coast of Thailand, dive boats only go there from November to May each year. The rest of the year - June to October - the seas are too rough to dive because of the monsoon season.

The Gulf Of Thailand on the east coast of Thailand is divable pretty much all year round - they get some pretty crappy weather from September to November but it's very variable.

Best ways to get there:
To get to Hin Daeng:
Make your way to Phuket or the islands of Koh Phi Phi or Koh Lanta. From there you can get daytrips that go out to Hin Daeng. Koh Phi Phi and Lanta are a little more effort to reach - you need to get a ferry over from Phuket or go via Krabi - but to my mind they are far, far better places to visit than Phuket. Much more scenic, less expensive, and not so crowded.

Besides the occasional whale shark, manta rays visit Hin Daeng very frequently - you have nearly a 50/50 chance of seeing mantas at the pinnacle. In the current season (2005 - 2006), my friends who work as dive guides on Koh Lanta and who have been visiting this site twice a week since November say that the mantas are there almost constantly, in contrast to last season when they would disappear for a week and then return. Of course, no one can guarantee the mantas will be there, but you have very good odds of spotting them. The journey to the dive site is quite long - around three and half hours each way. It was on a dive from Koh Lanta in April 2005 that I saw a whale shark at Hin Daeng. Read the article I wrote for Asian Diver magazine about Hin Daeng.

To get to Richelieu Rock:
The only way to see Richelieu Rock is on a Similans liveaboard boat, like the one run by my friends at Phuket Diving Safaris. A liveaboard typically lasts four days and is ideal for doing a lot of diving without costing a fortune. You'll need to get a liveaboard to the Similans either from Phuket, or from Khao Lak, which is about an hour up the coast from Phuket and geographically the nearest place on the mainland to the Similan Islands.

Richelieu is the most northern dive site on the Similan liveaboard itineraries, and it is an amazing dive site, whether or not you see whale sharks. It's a horseshoe shaped rock in the middle of the ocean that acts a shelter and hunting ground for hundreds of different species of marine life. Read the article I wrote for Asian Diver magazine about the Similan Islands last year.

To get to Chumphon Pinnacle:
Chumphon Pinnacle can be reached from Koh Tao in about half an hour or from Koh Samui in a couple of hours - a lot less if you're on a speedboat. If you're serious about diving, don't bother staying on Samui - go straight to Koh Tao, because it's much nearer the better dive sites. Koh Tao is also a lot more relaxed and less crowded than Samui, mainly thanks to its remoteness. It takes four hours to get to the island from the mainland at Surat Thani by ferry.

Widely regarded as the best dive site in the Gulf of Thailand, Chumphon Pinnacle also sees whale sharks appear three or four times a year. Like the other sites mentioned here, it is a great dive site in its own right, particularly if you can find the grey reef sharks that patrol off the edge of Barracuda Rock.

Good luck with your search for the whale sharks - and if you see them, let me know!

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I spend a lot of time dreaming about where I can go diving next. South East Asia is home to the richest marine biodiversity in the world, and virtually every country in the region has scores of unique dive sites that I would dearly love to visit. Recently I've been thinking about the Philippines, after reading about the town of Donsol on Calvin Tang's blog (check out his excellent photographs on that page). Donsol is apparently one of the best places in the world to see whale sharks, the biggest fish in the world. It's a creature I've been fascinated by ever since I first snorkelled with them off the coast of Exmouth in Western Australia.

At Donsol you can see 10 to 12 whale sharks within a couple of hours if you're lucky - I've just got to go and see it for myself. Calvin mentioned a German dive instructor called Tom on his blog who now works at the Bicol dive centre on the island of Ticao, just off the coast from Donsol - a perfect place by the sounds of it to be based to snorkel with the whale sharks and also see the manta rays that regularly stop by near the island. I've subsequently been talking to Tom by email and he's told me they've just discovered a Japanese warship wrecksite too and that they've also launched a conservation site for Ticao's manta rays. We're really hoping we can go and visit Ticao next March, when the whale shark season is in full swing. (See this article from Camperspoint.com with a blow-by-blow account of snorkelling with the whale sharks.).

One of the things I love about diving is that it opens up so many new things to you. Before I heard about Donsol, I knew virtually nothing about the Philippines. I just about knew where it was and that was it. The news here in Thailand carries continual stories of the unrest against president Gloria Arroyo which made me a little concerned about how safe it was to be a tourist there. Tom reassured me that if you don't go to the Mindanao region then you'll be absolutely fine. Now I've been studying maps of the Philippines and have started to get a little bit familiar with its geography and its thousands of islands. Tiger Airways do budget flights from Singapore to Manila, and we can get another budget flight with Tiger or AirAsia from Bangkok to Singapore. Donsol is on the same island as Manila, although it looks like several hours' drive to get down there. A good chance to see something of the Philippines countryside. Here's hoping we get it all together next March so I can write a real article reporting what we did.

Other useful links:
Wikipediagives a good map and general stats on the Philippines. Lonely Planet has a brief overview of what to see and do in the Philippines, as does Wikitravel. World66 is somewhat more comprehensive, while the awesome Dive Site Directory has a handful of comprehensive Philippines diving reviews.